Title: AMS :: Feature Column from the AMS
Headings: The Process of Electing a President
The Process of Electing a President
Posted April 2008.
The Electoral College
Mathematical insights into elections and voting
Ballots
Decision methods
Axiomatic approaches to fairness
Manipulation of voting systems
Who studies fairness, voting and elections?
References:

Content: Others say that, as observed above, close votes in the popular vote are often translated into big victories in the Electoral College and that this gives added stability to American democracy. There is another layer of complication in becoming the president, getting the endorsement of one of the two major parties (Democratic or Republican). The candidate selected to run for president by the major parties is done through a complex system of caucuses and primaries. A good example of this is the concern during the 2008 election that relatively small states were having a disproportional effect on who was selected as a candidate because these small states had their primaries early compared with larger states. This resulted in the decision of Michigan and Florida to reschedule their primaries to earlier than in the past. However, the Democratic Party decided that it would not allow the delegates elected in these rescheduled primaries to be "seated" at the party convention. The issue of how to equalize the influence of people in different parts of the country in the selection of party candidates is a complex one, which scholars in many disciplines are addressing, using mathematical methods. Mathematical insights into elections and voting
Not only do Americans vote for president but we also vote for the representatives who create the laws which form the basis of our daily lives. These representatives use votes to create these laws. Elections and voting behavior are ingrained in democracies.