THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF HOW RULES, WHICH APPEAR TO
BE IMPARTIAL CAN, ACTUALLY DETERMINE THE OUTCOME OF A DECISION.  HOW
DOES THE WAY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORKS INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME OF AN
ELECTION? GIVE SPECIFIC ELECTION EXAMPLES.

The Federal Elections Commissions page on the Electoral College is
found at:
http://www.fec.gov/pages/ecmenu2.htm

I recommend visiting the "How the Electoral College Works" for a basic
background the Electoral College system, but it appears that you may
already have that knowledge.

For specific examples of the influence the Electoral College has had,
you should view an essay posted on the website by William C.
Kimberling, Deputy Director of the FEC Office of Election
Administration.  It's a 20 page PDF file.  It's linked on the FEC
page, but here is the direct URL:
http://www.fec.gov/pdf/eleccoll.pdf

You want to look at the "Historical Curiousities" section starting at
page seven.  This lists a number of examples of how the Electoral
College has influenced elections.

A text version of this report can be found at (I prefer text to PDF
files, personally):
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Columns/Electoral-College.html 

This website talks about the 1876-1877 Electoral College controversy
of Hayes vs. Tilden:
http://elections.harpweek.com/controversy.htm

I'm not sure if this well help you or not, but it looked interesting
to me so I am including it in my answer.  It's the National Archives
and Records Administration's page on the Electoral system.  It
includes the box scores and votes for every election since 1789
(that's the first one where George Washington was elected).  The site
is found at:
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html

To find these websites I searched Google for "electoral college" (no
quotes) and by visiting links found on pages:
://www.google.com/search?q=ELECTORAL+COLLEGE

Thanks for the question!

xemion-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by npb17-ga on 12 Oct 2002 19:31 PDT

can you give me a specific answer?? like how you would answer it.
thankx

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Clarification of Answer by xemion-ga on 13 Oct 2002 09:32 PDT

Kimberling's essay had a number of specific examples.  Exactly what do
you want me to do?  I'm not sure I understand.

xemion-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by npb17-ga on 13 Oct 2002 17:13 PDT

i don't need the websites for where you found it, can you just answer it for me?
thankx

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Clarification of Answer by xemion-ga on 17 Oct 2002 17:30 PDT

- In 1824, the electoral votes were divided among the four candidates
(Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William Crawford, and Henry Clay).
 In accordance with the 12th Admendment, the House of Reprsentatives
selected John Qunciy Adams.  Many believe this to be the first
election where the candidate with the greatest popular vote (Jackson)
was not elected president.

 - In 1888, Grover Cleveland won 110,476 more popular votes than
Benjamin Harrison, but Harrison won the election.

 - Twice in this century attempts have been made to block and
Electoral College victory (the States’ Rights Democrats in 1948 and
George Wallace’s American Independents in 1968).  Both attempts failed
miserably.

I apologize for the delay in getting this to you.  I was out of town
for a couple days.

I hope these examples suit your needs.  As you can see, the Electoral
College has not often actually effected an election.

Thanks for the question.

xemion-ga