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The members of the Electoral College use the popular vote to guide who they vote for. In each state, whichever candidate receives the most popular vote is given all of that state's electoral votes. In order to win the election, a candidate must receive 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538. That is, they must receive a majority of the electoral votes.
There are many criticisms of the Electoral College. Many people feel that it is unfair that a candidate who does not get the majority of popular votes in a state receives no electoral votes. Even if they were behind by only five popular votes in one state, they would not receive any of that one state's electoral votes.
Another fear of numerous citizens is that "the electors are not required to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged- (Kelman, 1999). Although this rarely happens, it is possible for the electors of a state to vote for the candidate who did not win the popular vote of that state. Since the people of a state vote for a president, and not an elector, it should be required for the elector to vote for whom they pledged to represent (Wikman, 1999). The electors are then considered unfaithful.
An additional downfall of the Electoral Party system is that if a third-party or independent-party ever made a strong bid for the presidency, "it might prevent either major-party candidate from winning a majority- (Kelman, 1999). Some critics go so far as to say that the Electoral College restricts the rise of another major political party. .
"The feature of the Electoral College most prone to attack is the requirement that the election go into the House of Representatives to determine the president and into the Senate to determine the vice president if the Electoral College fails to reach a majority- (Burdette, 2000). Consequently, this takes the election out of the general public's hands because neither the Senate nor the House is required to vote for who won the popular vote.