270 and 538 - Whats the correlation?

Good Morning!  Welcome to Decision 270.  So I just spent the past hour orienting myself to all the fun design features you can use to customize your blog.  I never knew that there were so many aspects you could alter - it was pretty cool for a first time blogger.  But now it's time to get down to business and start writing about some serious stuff...

So I guess I will tell you why I named this blog Decision 270.  The reason is that the number 270 has played a very important role in the presidential election for the past 48 years.  Do you know what it is?  I'll give you a hint - it's linked to the number 538.  Figure it out?  No - it's okay.  I have to be honest, I wouldn't have known the correlation between the two numbers either, until yesterday when I was talking with my Dad about ideas for blog names.  He started telling me (or should I say, 'refreshed my memory') about the Electoral College, which is a process not a higher education institution.  For those of you who might appreciate a little refreshing as well, the Electoral College is a body of representatives, appointed by each state, who formally elect the president.  The total numbers of individuals in the Electoral College is 538.  This number is derived by allowing each state to have one electoral appointee for each of their House of Representatives members, and two for each Senator.  In order for a candidate to be elected president, he or she had to win a majority of the electoral votes.  Figure out why the number 270 is important yet?  If the total number of votes in the Electoral College is 538, than at least 270 votes are needed to win the presidency.  Hence, Decision 270.