How does the U.S. electoral process work?
Perhaps one of the aspects of U.S. democracy that causes the most confusion among voters is the so-called Electoral College, which is ultimately the body that decides who wins the election.
While most of the time the candidate who wins the popular vote is also the winner of the Electoral College vote, that is not always the case. So far, this century has seen two episodes in which the winner of the popular vote was not elected.
This happened in the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore, and again in 2016 between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
What is the Electoral College? Who makes it up? How is it elected?
U.S. citizens head to the polls to vote for electors, which are distributed among the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on the size of their population.
There are the same number of electoral delegates as there are senators (2 per state), plus 435 representatives and 3 designated to the District of Columbia.
Because of the way U.S. elections work, it is not always the candidate with the most votes who wins, explains political strategist Luis Alvarado.
“The goal is to get the most votes in the Electoral College. Because of this the most populous states are particularly relevant.”
The number of electors each state gets is based on its population and the number of congresspeople it has in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
To win the presidency, a candidate needs 270 out of the 538 electoral votes. This makes the most populated states super important. For example, California has 55 electoral votes, Texas has 38, Florida has 29, and New York has 29. Coincidentally, these states also happened to be where a sizable portion of the U.S. Latino population lives, says Alvarado.
But the reality is that most of the states stick to the same party, election after election, with only a few exceptions. In this election cycle, the swing states to watch are Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
In 48 states and the District of Columbia, the candidate who wins the popular vote takes all the electoral votes. Only Maine and Nebraska do things differently, splitting their votes and awarding two delegates to the popular vote winner.
Selection of Electors
Each state gets the number of electors equal to the total number of representatives in the House plus two for its senators. These electors are picked by the political party of the presidential candidate.
Counting of Electoral Votes
Congress counts these votes and announces the winner. Even though election night gives us a clear idea, the Electoral College has until December to officially declare the winner.
Who makes up the Electoral College?
Political parties in each state choose their own list of potential electors. But who gets to be an elector, how they are chosen, and when it all happens varies from state to state.
Some states require electors to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state, and if they do not, there could be consequences.
With this clear, it is easier to understand why sometimes the candidate who wins the popular vote does not necessarily become the next president.