ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the unique electoral mechanism the United States uses to select the president: the Electoral College (EC). It also focuses on the impact of EC campaign strategy on turnout. As the central governing institution of presidential elections, the EC constrains and shapes the behavior of the candidates in the election in two ways. First, in order to win the presidency a candidate must win a minimum of 270 electoral votes. Second, in order to achieve the 270 vote threshold candidates must win elections in individual states. The chapter discusses the relationship between battleground status, campaign resource allocation, and turnout. In presidential elections, the major campaigns develop strategies about how to allocate relatively scarce resources to win an electoral vote majority. It is possible that turnout would increase "nontrivially," given the strong relationship between direct mobilization and turnout.
