The upcoming presidential election outcome may be disputed. Five scholars provide a history of contested elections in the US and explain what happens when an election outcome is challenged.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Electoral College
Displaying 1 - 20 of 28 articles
There are similarities between the law-and-order language used by the 1968 and 2020 presidential candidates and the racial tension and political polarization both years. But much is different.
Biden and Trump are both preparing for a court battle in November. But when the Electoral College produces no clear winner, it's the House of Representatives that's supposed to select the president.
This is not the first time the prospect of state legislatures ignoring the popular vote and appointing their own slate of electors has arisen.
The polls are predicting a comfortable win for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. But if this election sees the same polling errors as in 2016, Trump’s chances of re-election are higher than we think.
No, it's not the TV news networks. The American election certification process is a lot more complicated than that.
Labor had its best results in the Newspoll since late April, perhaps reflecting how people view Morrison's handling of the aged care-coronavirus debacle.
Internal party rules make it harder to attract independents, who make up about one-third of US voters.
Political conventions used to pick presidential nominees in private. Now the public picks the nominee and then the party has a big party at the convention, writes a scholar of US elections.
With a Supreme Court ruling rejecting one of the founders' two reasons for creating the Electoral College, only one reason remains: racism.
Mathematically speaking, the Electoral College is built to virtually ensure narrow victories, making it very susceptible to manipulation and disinformation.
Many Americans are surprised to learn that Electoral College members do not necessarily have to pick the candidate their state's voters favored. Or do they?
There are many more ways to elect a president than the US method – and several alternatives beyond the popular vote.
Hillary Clinton got the most individual votes from US citizens in 2016, but Donald Trump won the most electoral votes.
A quirk of mathematics gives voters in some small states, like Rhode Island and Nebraska, an extra edge over voters in other states. This happens not only in the US, but in other countries, too.
Throughout the course of American history, peaceful transitions of power have been the result of choices made by individuals, not the U.S. political system. What does that mean if Trump loses in 2020?
Conflict made its way to the Supreme Court this past session with two cases – one about the census, the other about gerrymandering. A court scholar says the two cases are intimately connected.
Many were confident the US Constitution was robust enough to check Donald Trump's worst excesses, but the real push back has come from elsewhere.
Does the Electoral College encourage candidates to campaign in rural areas, as its supporters claim? And do electors actually filter the 'passions' of voters, as the founders wanted them to?
The Democrats have 24 potential presidential candidates but, like Donald Trump, their two front runners are both men in their seventies: Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.
Top contributors
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Academic Teacher, Swinburne University of Technology
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Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Erie campus, Penn State
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Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Professor, College of the Holy Cross
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Associate Professor in American Politics at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney
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Dennis Altman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professorial Fellow in Human Security, La Trobe University
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Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University
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Senior Lecturer in Politics and Policy, Deakin University
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Professor of History and Law Faculty, The Ohio State University
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Lecturer in Law, University of Sheffield
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Chief Executive Officer, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney
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Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington
