By: Randy Evans

Most voters think they have already elected the president and vice president back on Nov. 6 — General Election Day. But, the truth be told, voters actually only elected presidential electors.
Each state has the total number of their congressional delegation (both U.S. House and Senate) as electors. (The District of Columbia has three electors.) For Georgia, this means 16 electors — 14 (reflecting the total number of its representatives) plus two (reflecting its two U.S. senators). California has the most electors with 55. There are a total of 538 electors (435 reflecting the total number of representatives, plus 100 reflecting the number of senators, plus three for the District of Columbia.)

Presidential electors do not actually meet to cast ballots until Dec. 17 (or more technically, the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December). Each state’s electors meet in that state’s capital. Georgia’s electors will meet in the Senate chamber at the Georgia State Capitol at noon on Dec. 17.

An elector casts a ballot for the president and separately for the vice president. The votes are not counted at that time. Instead, the electoral votes are not actually counted until Jan. 6, two months following the presidential election. At that time, Congress convenes in a joint session to count the electoral votes.

To win, a candidate for president must receive 270 electoral votes. On Nov. 6, 332 electors from 26 states and the District of Columbia supporting President Barack Obama were elected; 206 electors from 24 states (including all 16 from Georgia) supporting Gov. Mitt Romney were elected.
Although the Electoral College numbers appear lopsided (with President Obama winning 58 percent of the electors), the popular vote was much closer. President Obama won just under 51 percent of the popular vote. His vote total of just over 65 million was well below his 2008 total of over 69 million. In either case, he still received well over 50 percent.
Interestingly, there have been three presidential elections when the winner of the popular vote on General Election Day did not win the electoral vote. These occurred in 1876, 1888 and, most recently, in 2000.

In 2000, President George W. Bush defeated Vice President Al Gore by the narrowest of margins with just 271 electoral votes — just one more than the 270 needed. While over 100 million votes were cast in the 2000 presidential election, only 366 votes in New Mexico separated the winner of its five electors and the presidency from the loser.
President Bush actually received fewer popular votes than Vice President Gore in the general election in 2000. Yet, under the Electoral College, he was elected as the 43rd president.
There is currently a proposal to lock in the results of the Electoral College so that the winner of the popular vote wins the election. Under this proposal, states with total electors of 270 or more agree to require their electors to vote for the winner of the popular vote no matter which candidate actually wins each state. No one knows whether such an agreement among the states would be constitutional. The risks are pretty obvious.

If a group of states could decide to direct their electors to vote for a candidate regardless of the outcome in each state, then those same states (with 270 or more electors) could just pick a candidate. The rest of the country would have little protection from such an arrangement. Already, eight states have joined this compact among states.

Absent any Electoral College monkey business, the Electoral College presents some interesting challenges for Republicans. The 2012 election was the sixth consecutive election (24 years) in which the Democratic nominee received more than 250 electoral votes. The worst showing for a Democratic candidate was Sen. John Kerry in 2004 with 251 votes.

For Democrats, states like California (55), New York (29) and Illinois (20) along with most of the Northeast provide a head start. Notably, 18 states and the District of Columbia have voted for the Democratic nominee in every single presidential election for 20 years. While Republicans still have states like Texas (38) and Georgia (16) along with the rest of the Deep South, it is clearly not enough. To be competitive, Republicans must think outside the South if they hope to have a chance to win.

Randy Evans is an attorney and columnist. He is also a presidential elector.