Confused About the Electoral College?

I'll be honest: I spent most of my high school government class worrying about my teacher. We'll call him Mr. S. The man was grotesquely overweight, and had a propensity for wearing dress shirts sized for a much smaller man. I was in the front row, next to my best school chum, Darla Scott. Together, we stared at the strained fabric stretched taut across his massive belly, and after class, we discussed our fears: would the buttons on his shirt pop off, zooming at warp speed to blind one or both of us? Would his chest be as hairy as the tufts of hair around his neck suggested? Would we survive button blinding via the glasses that shielded our eyes only to be blinding by the site of his half-naked body? Would he ever notice that we sat right in the front row, blatantly disregarding his lectures and passing notes back and forth?

Perhaps Mr. S thought we were the most diligent students in the class -- we did get the highest grades on all of the tests, after all -- but I knew then, as I know now, that I don't know diddley squat about the U.S. government, including the whole election process whereby the popular vote determines the votes of the electoral college and all that. And, really, what did it matter? For a girl who was a citizen of the United Kingdom, not the United States, and about whom the cute, insolent boy in the back of the room said "Let's dissect her!" when it came out during the election talk that I was a resident alien, elections didn't matter. I'd save my brain cells for the things that really mattered, like getting drunk on warm beer after school and experimenting with drugs.

Unfortunately, that leaves me today, years later, still rather hazy on the whole electoral college thing. Perhaps, you, too, daydreamed during government classes. Or maybe you were homeschooled and skipped all that crap. Or maybe you just plain forgot all the deets. Never fear, I'm here to enlighten* you. (*By enlighten, I mean, likely, confuse you further.)

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors who cast the votes that matter in the presidential elections. Elected by the states, each elector pledges to vote for a certain candidate, generally decided by the popular election, but in practice, the elector can vote for whoever he wants, which doesn't happen all that often. The elector can also abstain and refuse to vote, which does occasionally happen. This TIME article explains everything.

Each state has the same number of electors as it has senators and representatives in congress, which is why nobody gives a crap about Rhode Island, since we've got four. Each state has two senators, who are elected for 6 year terms. The senators represent the state. The number of representatives vary, which a set number of 435 representatives for the whole U.S. Theoretically, the representatives represent the people, but as population increases and reps stay the same, a representative who in the 1800s may have spoken for 50,000 people now needs to speak for 700,000 people. You can see how this might not work, and if you are curious: read this.

Some people claim the electoral system is flawed in that it doesn't accurately represent the wishes of the people, especially since the electors are not required to vote as the popular vote dictates. There's also the issue of people feeling that their votes don't matter, thereby relinquishing their voting power to the people by not voting at all. This site goes to far as the claim that "the electoral college sucks" and explains why, with pretty graphics to boot! (The blog even claims that a vote in Rhode Island has 151% more value than a vote in California.)

Other people claim the electoral college is essential to the U.S. system of government and is actually the best way to represent the wishes of the people. Without the electoral college, these people claim, smaller states would be completely dominated by larger states, and candidates wouldn't bother to campaign anywhere but the most highly concentrated urban areas.