How are electoral votes distributed?

Electoral votes are distributed to each state according to the formula in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution: each state gets a number of electors equal to its total representation in Congress, which is the number of its senators (always two) plus its number of representatives in the House (which varies by population). California, the most populous state, currently has 54 electoral votes (52 representatives plus two senators). Texas has 40, Florida has 30, and New York has 28. The least populous states (Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, and Rhode Island) have three electoral votes each (one representative plus two senators). The District of Columbia has three electoral votes under the 23rd Amendment, ratified in 1961.

The amendment gives D.C. as many electors as it would have if it were a state, but never more than the least populous state, which always has three. The two-senator allocation gives small states a slight boost in electoral power relative to their population. A vote in Wyoming, for example, has roughly three times the weight of a vote in California in the Electoral College, because Wyoming's three electors represent about 580,000 people, while California's 54 electors represent nearly 40 million. This small-state boost is sometimes called the senatorial bonus and is a deliberate feature of the design.

The number of electors per state changes after each ten-year census, when the 435 House seats are reapportioned among the states based on the new population numbers. After the 2020 census, the most recent reapportionment, Texas gained two electoral votes, while Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon each gained one. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia each lost an electoral vote.

Within each state, electors are pledged to vote for the candidate who wins the state's popular vote. In 48 of the 50 states plus D.C., this is winner-take-all: whoever wins the popular vote gets all of that state's electors. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, allocate two electors based on the statewide popular vote winner and one elector for each congressional district based on the popular vote winner in that district. This means Maine and Nebraska can occasionally split their electoral votes between candidates, as Nebraska did in 2008, 2020, and 2024 when one of its districts went Democratic while the rest of the state went Republican.