For many outside the United States— and some there as well — the Electoral College is a confounding mystery.
But in a nutshell, to win the US presidency, a candidate has to win support in enough key states to reach that magic Electoral College number of 270.
A candidate who wins the popular vote — the most votes in total across the US — may not actually win the White House, as was the case for instance in 2017 when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump.
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That’s because it’s not each individual American but rather a group of 538 so-called “electors” who select the president. Before the election, the political parties in each state choose a slate of electors: real people who ultimately cast a vote for the president. Very often, the electors are party officials or supporters.
Each state gets the same number of electors as it has representatives in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.
For example, Michigan gets 15 Electoral College votes. That corresponds to the two senators and 13 House members who represent the state in Congress.
The system was designed to ensure the political power of the states — but it’s not a popular one.
Some in the US say the Electoral College should be scrapped in favour of the popular vote. Others argue the system ensures highly populated states do not overshadow smaller ones.
In nearly all states across the US, the presidential candidate who gets the most votes wins all that state’s electors: It’s a winner-takes-all system. Even if a candidate wins a state narrowly, they still get all the electors.
The outliers are Maine and Nebraska, which allocate their electors based on a more complicated system that reflects the popular vote on the state and congressional district levels.
The District of Columbia — which is not a state but encompasses the country’s capital — also gets three Electoral College votes.
To win the White House, a presidential candidate must win the support of a majority of the electors.
So out of a total of 538 Electoral College votes, they need at least 270 to win.
The electors ultimately cast their votes in December, about a month after the election. Their votes are then certified by Congress in early January, when the president is confirmed and takes office.
Source: Aljazeera