The Electoral College In Review

When voting for the next President of the United States, citizens are actually casting their vote for electors rather than for the candidate and the running mate directly. These electors then represent the choice of the people* in the Electoral College. The Electoral College consists of these elected "delegates" from each of the 50 states plus Washington D.C.

The Electoral College formally elects the President and the Vice President of the United States on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December in their respective state Capitals (or in the case of Washington D.C., within the district).

*In rare cases a delegate may decide not to vote for whom they've been pledged, or elected. These delegates are called faithless electors. See "Electoral College Delegates in Depth" for more information on how the process of pledging works.

Electoral College Delegates in Depth

Currently 48 states and the District of Columbia have a "winner takes all" system, meaning that the candidate that wins 51% of the popular vote in the state receives all the delegates for that particular state. Maine and Nebraska both use a "tiered system" that allocates delegates based on the percentage of votes each candidate won.

The total number of Electoral College delegates is currently 538. Each state is allocated the number of House of Representative members plus the 2 Senators. The U.S. territories are not represented in the electoral college while Washington DC is with 3 delegates. (See the above map for each state's delegate count.) A candidate must have a majority (currently 270) electoral votes to win the Presidency.

After delegates are elected and pledge to vote for a particular candidate, they head to their respective state capitals (or within the district for Washington D.C.) to place their votes. The Electoral College never meets as one body, though electors generally follow a very similar process. Each elector casts 1 vote for the President and 1 vote for the Vice President on separate ballots. However, on a few rare occasions, some delegates decided to not vote for whom they were pledged. These electors are referred to as faithless electors. Once the voting is finished, the electors complete the process with the Certificate of Vote which states the number of electoral votes cast for President and Vice President and who received those votes.

The Debate Over the Electoral College

Many critics argue that the Electoral college is inherently undemocratic and that it gives certain swing states more clout in picking the President and Vice President. Those in favor of the Electoral College believe that it is a feature of a federal system and that it protects the rights of smaller states. Several constitutional amendments have been submitted to replace the electoral college with a direct popular vote, but because it is so difficult to amend the Constitution, no amendments has ever successfully passed both the House and Senate.