Who you need to research and vote for to represent you in Washington DC

Now that you understand how the President of the United States is elected. It's time to discuss the people that your popular vote counts for. These are the people you need to focus on in the upcoming election.

1. The Senate and the House of Representatives together make up Congress.
2. Find out if you have a Senator up for re-election this year. These 2 people represent you in the United States Senate.
• Senators are up for re-election ever 6 years
• Senators write and vote on laws in Washington
• They spend part of the time in Washington and part of the time in their home state
• Approves or rejects presidential nominations
• Provides advice and consent on international treaties
• Serves as the high court for impeachment trials
3. Find out who represents your district in the house of representative. This person is up for re-election every 2 years. Find out who is running against them.
• Follow this link to find your representative  http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
• This is the closest thing you have to a person representing you in Washington
• This is a great place to put your focus on making change in Washington

How does the President of the United States get elected in the November election?

1. Each state is broken up into districts depending on your state's population. Higher the population the more districts you will have. This makes it so that your state population is proportionately represented in the House of Representatives.
• California has 53 districts, Arizona has 9 districts, and Montana only has 1 district.
2. In each states district, the people elect a person to the house of representative every two years.
• The US has 435 districts, so it has 435 representatives in the House of Representatives.
3. Each state also elects 2 people to the Senate. US senators are not based on the state’s population. Each state has an equal representation in the Senate.
• 50 states = 100 senators in the Senate.
• U.S Senators serve a term of 6 years
• 1/3 of the senate is up for reelection every 2 years.
4. American voters go to polls and cast a vote for the President of the United States Every 4 years. It is on the first Tuesday in November, after the first Monday.
5. The people of each district's vote is a suggestion for their district's electorate to vote as they have. Some states have laws that say the delegate must vote as the people have suggested, but not all. 
• House Representatives have a term limit of 2 years.
• They are always willing to listen because after they win an election they are soon preparing for the next one
6. The winning president will exceed 270 of the total 538 Delegates available to them.
• 435 House Delegates
• 100 Senate Delegates
• 3 delegates from the District of Columbia (Constitutional 23^rd amendment)
7. The winner of each state's electoral votes will receive all the delegates for the entire state in almost all cases.  
• This is why states like California holding 55 delegates are more important to the presidential hopefuls than Montana with only 3.
• In 2012 Barack Obama received only 60.24% of votes in California, and received all 55 delegates
8. Now that we know we have 538 actual votes for the President of the United States. Does Congress vote for us in the Electoral College? No! 
• The first part of the process is controlled by the political parties in each state and varies from state to state.
• The second part of the process happens on election day. When the voters in each state cast votes for the presidential candidate of their choice they are voting to select their state's electors. The potential electors names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of the presidential candidates, depending on election procedures and ballot formats in each state. 

Your vote for President of the United States counts as a suggestion for a person that is already chosen by the party you are voting for. Only 538 actually people vote for President of the United States. The popular vote was not enough for Al Gore in 2000 when he had 48.4% of the popular vote, but only 266 state delegates. George W. Bush’s had 47.9% of the popular vote with 271 state delegates.

Why you need to still vote if you don’t like your choices for President of the United States

Like most Americans I'm frustrated with my options for President of the United States. I’m not excited for either candidate. I was wondering what I could do to try and care about this election and still dislike the idea of one of the two real options for president getting elected. I could vote for somebody like Gary Johnson, but that is as good as not voting. So I started out on a quest to learn more about the political system that I didn't remember from high school government. I felt since one of the two are getting elected.  How can my vote minimize the damage this election and elections going forward. Knowledge is power. This is what I found out and I hope it helps you. The following posts over the next few days and weeks will explain how our government works and what you need to research and do before you go to the polls this November. 
These posts are not to upset anybody. It is meant to inform you so you can make an educated decision when voting this year. I’m going to keep it to the point and just give you the facts you need to make your vote actually count.