This stage of the primaries is what will determine which candidates will have a chance to run in the presidential election, and it reveals a lot about the political engagement of voters. It is also at this time that parties begin to mobilize their bases, preparing the ground for the final race.
Black man wearing a blue suit in a voting booth in the United States
Credits: Michael Appleton - Mayoral Photography Office
The Electoral College and the Delegates
The Electoral College is a unique institution in the United States electoral system. Composed of 538 delegates, it is responsible for electing the president. Each state is allocated a number of delegates proportional to its population, meaning that more populous states, such as California and Texas, have greater influence on the final outcome.
A peculiarity of the Electoral College is the " winner takes all " system croatia mobile database adopted by 48 of the 50 states. Under this system, the candidate who obtains the most votes in a state takes all of the votes from that state's delegates. This can lead to situations in which a candidate becomes president without having won the popular vote, as occurred in 2016 and 2000.
The Electoral College was created during the drafting of the United States Constitution in 1787 as a means of balancing power among the states. At the time, there were concerns about the logistics of a national popular vote election, as well as concerns about too much power in the hands of more populous states.
Furthermore, the Electoral College was influenced by regional issues, such as slavery. Southern states, with large slave populations who did not have the right to vote, feared losing political power. The compromise was to create a system in which states would have a proportional say in the presidential election, taking into account their population, albeit indirectly.