US Voting Question for all the Political Science Majors

Dual Citizen still learning the ropes:
...uhm...and i don't presuppose anything, but if the delagates do the real voting...why do we, the common men, go to the ballet boxes on game day--Obama vs. McCain???

'me so confused'...and i still vote...just in case there's a logical reason other than saying hiya to your mates who show up.


"are we there yet...are we there yet...are we there yet?"

First off,I'm not a Political science major.Secondly,I'm Australian.
Who wins the U.S. Presidency is decided by a system called the Electoral college voting system.Each state is allocated a number of votes which corresponds to the states House of Representatives and Senate Members.ie California has 55.New York has 31.Texas has 34.
When the vote is taken,which party has the most votes for that state assumes the whole number of Electorial College votes for that state.These votes are allocated to the 'electors' and it is assumed they will carry out the wishes of that state.All Electoral votes are counted up and the candidates who manage to get to the number of 270+(out of 538) gets the U.S. Presidency.

BXC8,
nice answer...you just brought me into the 20-something-th century. i'll have more questions, count on it (pardon the pun).

BXC8 got it right. Also, just because the popular vote is high for one candidate does not mean they will win the Electoral vote. In 2000, Al Gore had the popular vote in the US but W won.

The Electoral vote for your state may be influenced by the popular vote - so your vote can make a difference.

Happy to have helped out.