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Around the time of presidential elections, we often hear a lot of discussion about the Electoral College from political pundits.

But just what is the Electoral College and why is there so much controversy surrounding it?

The Electoral College is made up of a group of people called electors, who cast the deciding vote for the president and the vice president of the United States.

They cast their votes separately for the president and the vice president, which is different than how voters cast their vote for the president and vice president.

Together, they meet one month after voters cast their votes for president in the November general election.

In the November election, voters like you and me are actually casting our vote for the electors who support the candidate that we select.

For example, in Michigan this November, if you cast your vote for the Democrat ticket, you are actually casting your vote for the 15 electors who will be voting for the Democrats at the Electoral College meeting in December.

Likewise, if you cast your vote for the Republican ticket this November, you will be casting your vote for those 15 electors who will be voting for the Republicans at the Electoral College meeting in December.

There are 538 electors in the Electoral College, and they come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Based on the number of Congress members each state has, they are allotted the same number of electors.

For example, Michigan has two U.S. senators and 13 House members.

So Michigan has 15 electors in the Electoral College for the 2024 presidential election.

The district of Columbia, which is not a state, gets three electors.

The winner of the presidential election means at least 270 electoral votes to win.

So why was the Electoral College created at the Constitutional Convention in 1787?

There was a passionate disagreement between the Founding fathers on the best way to select the president.

Some wanted the president to be chosen by popular vote of the people.

Others had less trust in the people's judgment and wanted the Congress to determine the president.

They argued that public opinion could be too easily manipulated by a tyrannical leader.

The Electoral College was proposed as a compromise to appease both sides.

It allows the people to indirectly vote for president by selecting electors that support the candidate of their choice, but makes the final decision the purview of the electors.

This allowed a check on the people's judgment in case they got it wrong, and supported a candidate who opposed the natural rights of Americans, which are the rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

It is for this reason that the founders did not stipulate in the Constitution any rules that required electors to cast their votes based on the popular vote in their state.

In 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled that states can enforce rules that void the votes of electors who did not vote according to their state's popular vote.

Only 15 states void the votes of faithless electors, who do not vote in accordance with their state's popular vote.

Michigan is one of those 15 states that voids the votes of any faithless elector in the 2016 election.

There were seven faithless electors who did not vote in accordance with their state's popular vote.

Most of those faithless electors went against the popular vote for Hillary Clinton in their states.

There were no faithless electors in the 2008, 2012 or 2020 elections.

So just who are these electors and how are they chosen?

That's a good question.

According to the constitution, electors cannot be a member of Congress or hold federal office and cannot be anyone who engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

Other than this, it is up to each state to determine the eligibility and selection process for electors until the mid 1800s.

It was common for state legislatures to appoint the electors.

Today, political parties choose the electors.

The most common way states determine their electors is at the state party conventions.

This is how Michigan decides.

Our electors.

At the Republican and Democrat state party conventions in August, there will be a vote on the slate of 15 electors.

Republicans will vote for their 15 electors, and Democrats will vote for their 15 electors.

Most electors are chosen based on their service and loyalty to the party, which makes it highly likely they can be trusted to vote for the party's nominees for president and vice president.

When the Electoral College meets in December, whichever party wins Michigan in the November election, their electors will go forward to the Electoral College meeting in December.

Why is it more difficult for Democrat candidates to win the Electoral College?

Americans are not equally dispersed across the 50 states in terms of population.

50% of Americans live in only nine states.

California is the most populated state by far.

It contains more people than the 21 least populous states combined.

Less than 17% of Americans live in the 25 least populated states.

As long as the number of U.S. House seats remains capped at 435, the top nine most populated states will always be under represented in the Electoral College, and the 25 least populated states will always be overrepresented.

Only three of the nine most populous states are majority Democrat.

Most of the least populated states that are overrepresented are Republican majority states.

This gives Republicans an advantage in being able to win the Electoral College without winning the popular vote.

If they can win enough of the votes in the populous swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.

This has happened twice in the last 25 years, once in 2000 when Bush won the Florida vote.

Florida was a swing state at the time, but is now more solidly Republican, but lost the nationwide popular vote.

And then again once in 2016 when Trump won the Michigan vote but lost the popular vote.

In that election, Hillary Clinton received 3 million more votes than Trump did.

But since most of that extra 3 million came from California and New York, she didn't win enough of the votes in the swing populous states to win the Electoral College.

The Democrats face the same challenge in 2024.

Winning the popular vote is not enough to win the presidency.

They must win the swing states that are more populous as well.

And avoid the problem that a few faithless electors could pose in getting to the 270 majority in the Electoral College.

They were able to do that in 2020 successfully, mainly because of their wins in Michigan and Georgia.

Can they repeat it in 2024?

Only time will tell.

Around the time of presidential elections, there's often much talk about getting rid of the Electoral College, but that too has its pros and cons and is a topic for another day.

But now you know how the Electoral College works or doesn't work, as the case may be.