Voters have cast their ballots. Now the 2024 US presidential election comes down to the Electoral College.
- Associate Professor of Political Science, Westminster College
Take a deep breath: Having to wait for election results means the system is working as it should, with safeguards and double-checks.
Every other country that used an electoral college has been unsatisfied with the results and chosen another way to pick a leader.
With a few notable exceptions, historians have found little evidence that vice-presidential picks actually help their presidential tickets.
In 1988, the US Supreme Court ruled that independent counsels were constitutional.
There are treaties and agreements and organizations, but, ultimately, other countries get to define who else is or isn’t a country.
Special counsels can help presidential administrations avoid the perception of bias, but they are not as independent as the independent counsels of the past.
Kamala Harris is on track to be one of the most influential vice presidents in history. This says more about the Senate than the amount of power the vice president actually wields.
NATO gets the headlines, but the Five Eyes alliance is another close connection between key Western powers, and it may expand.
Nationalism and patriotism are sometimes treated as synonyms, but they have very different meanings.
Special counsels can help administrations avoid the perception of bias, but politics is never fully out of the picture.
Special counsels are not entirely independent, but they do still help administrations avoid the perception of bias.
Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win over GOP challenger Herschel Walker had implications beyond Georgia – and offers a lesson in how far the state has come from its racist past.
Runoff elections in Georgia have a racist past, but the contest between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker for US Senate is a sign of progress.
Created in Europe during a time of intercultural struggle and strife, Esperanto was meant as a communication tool to spread peace among the people of the world. Its speakers are still at it.
Many countries welcome foreigners who want to join their military forces.
The difference between a language and dialect is just as much about politics as it is linguistics.
It may be new to Americans, but ranked-choice voting has a long history, and it is spreading rapidly across the U.S.
Many states have found ways to remove partisan politics from their court systems.
The US system was designed with more checks and balances than many other successful democracies – the filibuster’s main function is to give undue power to a vocal minority.
History shows that attorneys general who are picked by – and serve at the pleasure of – the president are not as independent as they may be expected to be.
The vice president may be second in line for the most powerful job in the nation, but there isn’t necessarily a lot to do besides wait – unless the president wants another adviser.
Five scholars explain different aspects of the history, workings and effects of the Electoral College.
Elections – like Georgia’s runoffs – that require majority support can sometimes be used to exclude those in the minority.
Do US attorneys general act in the public’s interest, or the interest of the president who appointed them?
