What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is the system established by the Constitution for electing the President and Vice President of the United States. Under this system, voters in each state actually cast their votes for electors who then formally vote for President and Vice President, rather than voting directly for the candidates themselves. The Electoral College is set out in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution and modified by the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, and the 23rd Amendment, ratified in 1961.

Each state is allocated a number of electors equal to its total number of senators (always two) plus its number of representatives in the House (which varies by population). California, the most populous state, currently has 54 electors. Wyoming, the least populous, has three. The District of Columbia has three electors under the 23rd Amendment, even though it has no senators or voting representatives. The total number of electors is 538 (100 senators plus 435 representatives plus 3 for D.C.). To win the presidency, a candidate must receive at least 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538.

In most states, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis: whoever wins the popular vote in that state gets all of that state's electors. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions, awarding electors partly by congressional district. After the November election, electors meet in their respective state capitals in mid-December to cast their formal votes. The results are sent to Washington, D.C., where Congress meets in joint session in early January to count the votes. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count.

The Electoral College has produced outcomes where the candidate winning the most popular votes nationally lost the election. This has happened five times in U.S. history: in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 (when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore despite losing the popular vote by about 540,000), and 2016 (when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million).

The Electoral College is sometimes criticized for these outcomes and for giving disproportionate weight to small states and swing states. Defenders argue it preserves federalism by requiring candidates to build geographic coalitions across states rather than concentrating on dense population centers. Reform proposals have included direct popular election (which would require a constitutional amendment) and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement among states to award their electors to whoever wins the national popular vote.