The Electoral College

US government · voting · how democracy works

Voters pick electors. When you turn 18 and vote for president, you're actually voting for a group of electors from your state who promise to vote for that candidate. It's like voting for someone's representatives instead of voting directly.

States get different power. Each state gets a number of electors equal to its total members in Congress (House plus Senate). This means smaller states have more power per person than they would in a pure popular vote, which helps balance the country's regions.

A system from 1787. The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College because they thought regular citizens might not know about candidates from far-away states. Back then, information traveled slowly, so this system made sense at the time.

538 electors total. The 50 states and Washington, D.C. send 538 electors to vote in December after the November election. A candidate needs 270 of those votes to win and become president.

It affects campaign strategy. Candidates focus their campaigns on competitive states called 'swing states' where the outcome is uncertain, rather than spending time everywhere equally. This is because winning a whole state, even by a tiny margin, wins you all of that state's electors.