General Election
November 4, 2008
Electoral College Information for Maine
When
voters go to the polls on election day, they cast a ballot for their
Presidential and Vice Presidential choice. This is called the "popular
vote". The popular vote is used to choose "electors"
-- these are the people who are chosen to cast votes for President and
Vice President of the United States. The "Electoral College"
occurs when electors in each state meet to cast their respective "electoral
votes" for President and Vice President. In other words, voters
choose the electors, and the electors choose the President.
Each
state gets votes in the electoral college. The number of votes allotted
to each state is determined by adding up all the members of the United
States Congress who are elected from that state. For example, Maine
has two U.S. Senators and two U.S. Representatives, for a total of four
members of Congress. Because Maine has four members of Congress, the
state also gets four electoral college votes. Political parties and
nonparty candidates choose their own electors in Maine. Political parties
choose their electors at a state convention. Nonparty candidates name
their electors when they submit the signatures they must collect to
get on the ballot. Each party or candidate must name four electors,
which is the most a candidate could win here. In each group of four
electors, one must be from the First Congressional District, one must
be from the Second Congressional District and two must be chosen at-large.
The names of all the electors are submitted to the Secretary of State.
After
the popular vote is cast November 4, 2008, the electors will meet to
cast their votes for President. The candidate who wins the most popular
votes in the First Congressional District wins one elector. The candidate
with the most popular votes in the Second Congressional District wins
one elector. The candidate who wins the most votes statewide wins the
two at-large electors. This is different from most states, where the
candidate who wins the most votes statewide wins all the electors in
that state. In Maine, it is possible for candidates to split the electoral
votes. In Maine, the presidential electors who are chosen as a result
of the November 4th general election will meet at 2 p.m. December 15,
2008, (which is the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December)
in the chamber of the Maine House of Representatives. At that time,
they will cast their electoral college votes for President and Vice
President of the United States. A separate ballot is used to cast a
vote for each office.
The
Electoral College was written into the United State Constitution in
1787 and was designed to balance the states' and the people's interests.
The Electoral College was established before the emergence of national
political parties.
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