How the election of our president really happens?

I realize that the popular vote does not elect the president, that the president is chosen by the electoral college.

I have searched, and read, and asked friends and relatives, and you know what, I don't think any of us really knows exactly how this all adds up.

One site said that the electors are chosen, at the same time as you vote for the president.

I've never seen such a choice when I have voted, and if that was the case, how do we know by the next day who won?

Another site said that the electors don't make a choice until December, so again, how is it we know who our next president is, usually by November 5th?

I also read that while the electors are "supposed" to vote based upon the popular vote for the state where they reside, there is no law or requirement that they do so. So even if the state's popular vote clearly chooses one candidate, any one or more of the electors can disregard the popular vote, and cast their vote against the opposite candidate.

So, my question, really, is... how many Americans truly understand that our vote, really doesn't elect our president?

How many even know who these electors are, or how they get chosen?

Why do we pay so much attention to all these polls?

While I'm on the polls, how many people now days don't have a land line at home?

I know of at least 15 people just in my family and circle of friends and associates who only use a cell phone. You know that none of the polls call cell phones?

Just something to open up a discussion on.

Hello progunr. You are correct that in voting for a president you are really voting for a slate of electors, who in turn are pledged to vote for the candidate they are aligned with. In most states you don't see the names of the electors on the ballot, although if you want to vote for a write-in candidate in many states you also have to provide the name of the elector to make your vote valid. In most states the electors are allocated by a winner-takes-all method - whomever wins the popular vote in the state gets all of that state's electors. There are a couple of states that go against the tide here - Maine and Nebraska for determine their slates of electors based on the proportion of popular vote each candidate wins. So the determination by the media of "who won" before the electoral college casts its votes is based on an assumption that all the electors will vote as they have pledged. In practice they always do, and in many states there are laws that would punish any elector who casts his vote otherwise. It would get interesting if a candidate dies after election day but before the electoral college votes on Dec 15 - in that case the electors would not be pledged to any specific candidate. This has happened twice - both times when the VP candidate of a major party died, but in both cases the other party was the clear winner and so it didn't affect the outcome. There's a good article on this here:

Electoral College (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College)

I would not change a thing. The Electoral College is the best system for picking a President suited to a nation like ours: a geographically large, ideologically diverse, socially complex federal republic. It has survived 220 years and 54 peaceful presidential elections ,no matter howq chaotic a few of them have been.

I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm, that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent. It unites in an eminent degree all the advantages, the union of which was to be wished for.
Alexander Hamilton 'The Federalist Number 68'

The Federalist #68 (http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa68.htm)

Pay no mind to the MAN behind the curtian!