Media impact on the special election

[Bob DeMattia]

There are actually 538 electors in the electoral college, as Washington D.C.
gets
3.  This is the reason 270 votes are required to obtain a majority.  Without
D.C., a majority would only be 268.

-Bob




On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 10:03 PM, Bob Nelson <raccoonradio@gmail.com> wrote:

> In addition I think that come presidential election time, electoral
> votes are awarded to the same number of Senators and Representatives
> in each state. MA would have 2 Sens and 10 Reps,
> VT 2 Sens and 1 Rep. States like California are big prizes to be won.
> Add them up and you get 535:
> 100 Senators and 435 Representatives --then add 3 for D.C. for a total
> of 538. However when a census is done, a state can lose a district or
> more.
>
> Mass. used to have 12 or even as many as 14 districts but lost
> population and it's been 10 for awhile. Who knows, could go down to 9.
> If this happens one Rep will be "gerrymandered out".
> Maps will be redrawn.
> The term comes from former MA gov Elbridge Gerry (of Marblehead, I
> think); a map drawn of one district (mine, Essex County) looked like a
> strange creature-- Gerry + Salamander, hence the term?
>
> State house and senate districts also can be  gerrymandered and take
> on weird shapes. Scott Brown's state senate district includes Howie's
> town of Wellesley and heads all the way down to Wrentham near the R.I.
> border.
>
> On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 3:41 PM, Bill O'Neill <billohno@gmail.com> wrote:
> > SteveOrdinetz wrote:
> >>
> >> Excuse the stupid question, but I've lived in N.H. most of my life and
> >> Mass. politics is peripheral at best.  What encompasses the district
> that
> >> was former Ted Kennedy's?  Western Mass, the Cape & Boston area all one
> >> district?  Talk about gerrymandering!
> >
> > The U.S. Senators (2 per state) are all at-large.
> >
> > Bill O'
> >
>