TThe 2024 presidential election is just around the corner as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris rush to gather votes before November 5. The winner is not determined by the number of votes cast in their favor, but by a group of The Electoral College made up of 538 people.
“If you’re going to vote for the president, you’re not voting for the president,” said William Field, a professor of political science at Rutgers University. Instead, you vote for that party’s electors, who typically cast a vote in favor of the presidential candidate who wins the most votes in that state.
It’s a process that dates back centuries and has proven controversial, especially in cases where a candidate wins the popular vote but loses the Electoral College. Most recently, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, despite earning nearly 3 million fewer total votes. This is the fifth time in American history that a candidate becomes president without winning the most votes.
Sixty-three percent of Americans say they would prefer if the winner of the presidential election were determined by the popular vote, according to a 2024 report from the Pew Research Center, even if there are partisan divides. Eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters favor abolishing the Electoral College, compared to 46% of Republicans.
Despite more than 700 proposals introduced in Congress to reform or abolish the Electoral College, it remains in effect today, according to the National Archives.
Here’s what you need to know about how the Electoral College actually works.
How does the Electoral College work?
Under the Electoral College, all fifty states and the District of Columbia are allocated a certain number of electoral votes equal to their two senators and their number of representatives. Because representatives are based on a state’s population, this means that larger states, such as California and Texas, have the highest number of electoral votes, at 54 and 40. Five states: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming – have the fewest electoral votes with three. Elections are essentially decided on a state-by-state basis. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, they typically receive all of the state’s Electoral College votes, even if the race is close.
But in Maine and Nebraska, there are apportioned electoral votes, meaning two electoral votes are given to the winner of the state’s popular vote, and then one electoral vote goes to the winner of the popular vote per congressional district.
How many votes do you need to win
In total, there are 538 voters who will vote for a particular presidential candidate. To win the presidential election, candidates must receive a majority of the possible 538 votes, or at least 270 votes.
After voters cast their ballots on Election Day, races are eventually called in each state, with the first results coming in on Election Day. States have until December 10 to settle any disputes or complete recounts on the results. On December 17, voters will meet to cast their votes for president. The copies of the ballots are then sent to the President of the U.S. Senate or the Vice President to be officially counted. On January 6, Congress will meet to count the electoral votes and declare victory for the candidate who receives at least 270.
If no presidential candidate receives 270 votes, Congress will choose the president and vice president. Each state’s House representatives will vote in favor of one candidate. In this scenario, a candidate must receive at least 26 votes to win the presidency. The Senate elects the vice president. Each senator casts one vote for a vice presidential candidate, and whoever receives 51 votes is elected. If the House of Representatives does not elect a president by Inauguration Day, January 20, the elected vice president will become the interim president until the House makes a decision.
Why we have the Electoral College
The rules for the Electoral College are set forth in the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. Because democracy was a new idea at the time, Field said, the country’s founders thought it would be best to let the states elect a president instead of direct electors.
The decision was part of the checks and balances system that prevailed throughout the American political system, but also reflected the Founding Fathers’ lack of trust in voters, says John Sacher, a professor of history at the University of Central Florida .
“They wanted white male properties to vote,” he says. “They wanted to make sure that the people who voted were virtuous. They were afraid that if you gave the people too much power, the people might make bad choices.”
The logistics at the time also made it more difficult to get people to vote during a period of reduced and slower transportation, lower literacy rates and limited opportunities for education. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1824 election that eligible voters, and not just electors, cast their ballots for the next leader of the US.
Read more: The debate that gave us the Electoral College
Slavery also played a role in the creation of the Electoral College when delegates to the 1787 constitutional convention agreed to the so-called three-fifths compromise in determining representation in the House. “To apportion the number of congressional seats and therefore electoral votes, they would count an enslaved person as three-fifths of a human being,” Field says. “They couldn’t vote, but it increased the apparent population of those states by large numbers of lay people.” This ensured that those in the North would not wield significantly more power than those in the South, where many people remained enslaved.
How is a voter selected?
Electors are chosen by each political party, but guidelines vary by state. Guidelines that apply to all states include that no senator, representative, or person holding any “office of trust or profit in the United States” can be an elector. State officials who have previously “conducted an insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to their enemies” are also disqualified.
What happens when a voter goes rogue?
While voters often vote for the presidential candidate they have pledged to vote for, “disloyal voters” sometimes do not. In 2016, seven electors went rogue — the most since 1972, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Thirty-five states and DC have laws against faithless electors. Violation of these laws can result in fines or disqualification of voters, depending on the state. In New Mexico and South Carolina, faithless voters can face criminal penalties. But these disloyal actors never changed the outcome of an election.
