Sen. Chuck Schumer: Sees Huge Margin for Obama

Politico.com reports that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) predicted Tuesday that Barack Obama will win more than 300 Electoral College votes when voters go to the polls in two weeks. (The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President of the United States.)

“I think this is one of those rare tectonic plate elections where the deep plates beneath our politics move. I think it's changing things not just for an election cycle but, perhaps, for a generation,” Schumer, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman, said during an appearance at the National Press Club.

Schumer, appearing with GOP counterpart Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, said he expects an Obama win to come with coattails, but would not go as far as to forecast that the Democrats will have 60 seats when the Senate convenes next year.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14798.html

The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President of the United States. In 2008, it will make this selection on December 15. The Electoral College is an example of an indirect election.

Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, United States citizens cast votes for electors. Electors are technically free to vote for anyone eligible to be President, but in practice pledge to vote for specific candidates[2] and voters cast ballots for favored presidential and vice presidential candidates by voting for correspondingly pledged electors. Most states allow voters to choose between statewide slates of electors pledged to vote for the presidential and vice presidential tickets of various parties; the ticket that receives the most votes statewide 'wins' all of the votes cast by electors from that state. U.S. presidential campaigns concentrate on winning the popular vote in a combination of states that choose a majority of the electors, rather than campaigning to win the most votes nationally.

Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of its Senators and Representatives in the United States Congress. Additionally, Washington, D.C. is given a number of electors equal to the number held by the smallest states.[4] U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College.