So I got a little schooled on the Electoral College and some of the election stuff in general.

A little gap was left in my civics understanding. This may have been due to my misundertandings or inattention when the topic was presented while I was in school, or perhaps due to misunderstandings of the instructors, or something in the middle. The Internet helped fill this gap with a helpful discussion at the US archives Electoral College site.

What my misunderstanding stemmed from was that there are a set number of electors per state. I understood one per representative and all that, but what I didn't understand was a pretty critical part. It isn't that the state has a number of electors, but that each candidate on the ballot (they aren't all the same) in each state has a pool of electors. When a candidate "wins" the state, that candidate's electors are the ones who cast votes.

While in some states, like mine, the electors aren't bound to vote for a particular candidate (this added to my misunderstanding), they are generally strong party members who have previously pledged to vote for their candidate. It is the pledge to the candidate that makes the electors vote a particular way. It is allowed for the electors to vote for other voters, although it apparently rarely happens.

This means that a vote for a presidential candidate does matter. At least it matters within a state (or within Maine or Nebraska within a smaller area as they do proportional voting). When a candidate wins the state's popular election, their electors get to vote. Those electors vote for their candidate (kind of a technicality, really). Those elector votes aren't actually counted until December 17, which is when the president is really elected, by 538 voters.

I stand corrected, hope my new understanding is a little closer, and I'll do better to vote in the future. At least when the race might be tight...