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How the Electoral College Works
STEPS TO BECOMING A PRESIDENT
STEP 1:
• The electorate (voting people) cast ballots
for their choice for President of the United
States.
STEP 2:
• These votes (popular vote) are tallied in each
state and the candidate who wins a majority of
the popular vote in that state receives ALL of the
electors (members of the Electoral College).
This means that the candidate who wins the
majority of the popular vote in a state wins all of
the electoral votes from that state.
• A state’s number of electors is equal to its
number of representatives in the U.S. House
and the U.S. Senate.
• The total number of electoral votes possible,
including D.C., is 538.
STEP 3:
• A candidate must receive a majority of the
electoral votes to with the presidential election.
• Today, a majority is 270 votes.
• The reason this is a winner-take-all system is
that if a candidate only wins a plurality (not a
clear majority, but more than the other
candidates) of the popular votes in a state, he
usually wins all of the electoral votes of that
state!
STEP 4:
• If no candidate wins a clear majority of the
electoral votes, the election is decided by
the U.S. House of Representatives.
Each state has ONE vote.
• This happened in the elections of 1800
and 1824.
STEP 5:
• After votes from the whole election are
tallied: If a candidate wins the popular
vote in the national election, but loses the
electoral vote, he does NOT become
president.
• This happened in the elections of 1876,
1888, and 2000.
STEP 6:
• The candidate that receives the majority of
the electoral votes nationally (or who is
voted president in the House) becomes
the next official President of the United
States.
• As few as eleven states can spell victory in
the Electoral College!
Electoral College: What’s The Scoop
Reasons why the Framers of the Constitution adopted an
electoral college.
1787-91
•
•
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Representatives: How to balance power
between large and small states
Result: Electoral votes are determined
by population, just like Congress.
# of Representatives + #of Senators=
# of Electoral Votes
•
•
Fear: People weren’t educated enough
to make a good decision.
Result: Electors who were educated
about the process would wait until after
the general election and make the official
vote.
•
•
Knowledge: Voters didn’t know about
candidates from other states.
Result: Using electors would keep
people from voting on candidates from
their state.
Today:
• Voting tells the elector which candidate the
voter wants the elector to vote for in the
electoral college.
• Electors do not have to vote for the
candidate that they are pledged to.