by staff writer, Hakop L.

            One of the most controversial topics in recent presidential elections has been the role of the Electoral College.

            Although the average American might think that the President of the United States is decided by the number of popular votes a respective candidate receives, it is actually the Electoral College that ultimately determines the winner of the election.

            Established by the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College works with each state which has a specific number of electoral votes based upon its sum number of representatives in the House of Representatives and its two representatives in the Senate.

            For example, the state with the most Electoral College members is California, which has 55 representatives.  If a candidate were to win a majority popular vote in California, he or she would receive 55 votes in the Electoral College.

            However, a smaller, less populated state like Wyoming only receives 3 electoral votes (2 senators and only one House of Representatives member).

            Then, based on whichever party gets the majority of votes in that state, all members of the Electoral College from that state will vote for that candidate.

            In total, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to become President of the United States.

            There have been three cases in past elections in which the candidate with the most popular votes did not win the election; they were largely due to the fact that the candidates had not received enough electoral votes.

            It is because of this that there are numerous advocates for the removal of the Electoral College.  However, social science teacher Nareg Keshishian disagrees.

            “I like the tradition of the Electoral College,” Keshishian said.  “[The Electoral College] forces candidates to campaign in every state and, if anything is going to be changed, we should change the role of money in politics.”

            The following are events where the majority popular vote getter has lost the Presidential Election:

1876: Rutherford Hayes (4,034,142 popular votes; 185 electoral votes) vs. Samuel Tilden (4,286,808 popular votes; 184 electoral votes)

1888: Benjamin Harrison (5,443,633 popular votes; 233 electoral votes) vs. Grover Cleveland (5,538,163 popular votes; 168 electoral votes).

2000: George W. Bush (50,460,110 popular votes; 271 electoral votes) vs. Albert Gore Jr. (51,003,926; 266 electoral votes).

Source: http://uselectionatlas.org/