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1. How are the number of electoral votes decided for each state? How many electoral votes are in your home state? Which Presidential candidate (Obama or Romney) won your state’s electoral votes in the 2012 election?
2. Briefly explain the “pros and cons” of the electoral system. Why do we have the electoral system? What are some arguments against it?
3. In a few sentences, explain what you think. Should the U.S. maintain the current Electoral College system, move toward a national popular vote system, or use the “proportional voting” system for the Electoral College used by Maine and Nebraska?

Electoral College consists of 538 electors chosen by the candidates political party. Electoral voters are decided by the equal number of members in its Congressional Representatives plus two for your senators. There are 16 electoral votes in the state of Georgia which is the state I am from. Mitt Romney won my states electoral votes. We have the electoral system because with popular votes it would be unfair to the smaller populated states if the larger populated states voted more to one way than their state. Also if a candidate was from the south he or she would be more likely to campaign in those states and not in the northern states. Then those states may feel like they wouldn't be “their” president. It is also good because there is less likely to be a dispute over the outcome of an Electoral College vote than a popular vote. Some cons are that is may turn off some voters if their state isn't voting for the political party they are wanting to vote for. The arguments against it are that it is undemocratic that the people should decide who their president is not congress.
In my opinion I agree with the Electoral voting, at first before I read more about how it works I did not agree. Now that I have read about it I believe it is really the only way that smaller states have any say in who the president is. Also I believe its a good idea to keep the candidates from campaigning more in one part of the country than the other are only the larger states with a larger population. The only thing I can see that would be bad would be if your state is not voting for the political party you would vote for. http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/map/historic.html http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#whyec http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2012/11/defending_the_electoral_college.html http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/12/23/voter-turnout-swing-states/1787693/

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