Electoral-college
noun, (often initial capital letters)
1.
a body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the president and vice president of the U.S.
noun
1.
(often capitals) (US) a body of electors chosen by the voters who formally elect the president and vice president
2.
any body of electors with similar functions
Electoral College [(i-lek-tuhr-uhl)]
The presidential electors who meet after the citizens vote for president and cast ballots for the president and vice president. Each state is granted the same number of electors as it has senators (see United States Senate) and representatives combined. These electors, rather than the public, actually elect the president and the vice president. The Founding Fathers assumed that electors would exercise discretion and not necessarily be bound by the popular vote, but the rise of political parties undermined this assumption. Electors are now pledged in advance to vote for the candidate of their party, and nearly always do so. Thus, the vote of the Electoral College is largely a formality.
Note: There have been several attempts to abolish the Electoral College. In the 2000 presidential election, the candidate with the plurality of popular votes lost the electoral vote, a situation that also occurred in the 1876 and 1888 elections.
Read Also:
- Electoral district
noun in the UK, an area of a given size or population that is used as the basic unit of parliamentary election voting Examples Deliberate altering of electoral district boundaries for political gain is known as gerry-mandering.
- Electoral-vote
noun 1. the vote cast in the electoral college of the U.S. by the representatives of each state in a presidential election. noun the tally of the number state-appointed party-affiliated electors for the US presidential candidate who has won a majority of the popular vote in that state, e.g. the number of Republican electors is […]
- Electorate
[ih-lek-ter-it] /ɪˈlɛk tər ɪt/ noun 1. the body of persons entitled to vote in an . 2. the dignity or territory of an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. /ɪˈlɛktərɪt/ noun 1. the body of all qualified voters 2. the rank, position, or territory of an elector of the Holy Roman Empire 3. (Austral & […]
- Electr-
1. variant of before a vowel: electrode.
- Electra
[ih-lek-truh] /ɪˈlɛk trə/ noun 1. Also, Elektra. Classical Mythology. the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra who incited her brother Orestes to kill Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. 2. Astronomy. one of the six visible stars in the Pleiades. /ɪˈlɛktrə/ noun 1. (Greek myth) the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. She persuaded her brother Orestes to […]