Who elected Obama in 2008?

A lot of people think that black folks put Barack Obama in the White House, but that is not true.

Obama received 53% or 66,882,230 votes from citizens. Black voters represented 12% of the voting populace, and 96% of blacks voted for Obama.

Winning the popular vote, however, does not necessarily mean a presidential candidate will win the election. In the U.S., presidents are not elected by citizen's votes but by the Electoral College System, and Obama got 365 electoral votes while McCain got 173. (It took 270 to win.)

Who are the electors, who are probably the most politically powerful people in states, and what racial groups do they represent? There are 535 people responsible for voting on behalf of their state in the Electoral College, and their numbers per state are based on the number of U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives per state.

According to About.com, electors "may be State elected officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the Presidential candidate...the voters in each State choose the electors on the day of the general election. The electors' names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of the candidates running for President, depending on the procedure in each State."

California has the most electors (55), followed by Texas(34), New York (31), and Florida (27).

So who really put Obama in the White House? For a full listing of the 2008 Electoral College members, go to http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2008-certificates/.

Map - Public Domain - Wikipedia. ©2011 Tomi Johnson (article); ©2011 Sharon Roper Jackson (photo). All rights reserved.