What is the Electoral College Process?
The Electoral College is embodied in the Constitution. Each state has a number of “electors” equal to the number of representatives and senators that state has. Voters in each state select that state’s electors by voting for their preferred Presidential candidate. In doing so, the voter actually selects an elector who has pledged to vote for the voter’s preferred Presidential candidate. The following December, each chosen elector casts two votes, one for President and one for Vice President.1 To be elected President, a candidate needs 270 of the 538 available electoral votes. Theoretically, each elector may vote for the candidate the elector prefers, but in practice most states follow a “winner-take-all” system under which all electors from a state vote for the candidate who won the state’s popular vote. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia currently follow the “winner-take-all” system. Maine and Nebraska both select two of their electors by statewide popular vote, with thei
