How does the Electoral College work and why is it used to elect presidents?

WASHINGTON — Five times in American history, and twice in the last 20 years, the U.S. presidential election was won by a candidate who lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College. 

The unique voting system helped Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016 and George W. Bush win the 2000 presidential election. It is different from the popular vote and has an outsized impact on how candidates run and win campaigns. 

Some Democrats charge that the system favors Republicans and they would rather the United States elect presidents by a simple majority vote, which is what the "popular vote" represents. But the country’s framers set up the system in the Constitution, and it would require a constitutional amendment to change.

A look at the Electoral College and how it works, as former president Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris compete for the White House on Election Day, Nov. 5:

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is a 538-member body that elects a president. The framers of the Constitution set it up to give more power to the states and as a compromise to avoid having Congress decide the winner.

Each state’s electors vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state. The runner-up gets nothing — except in Nebraska and Maine where elector votes are awarded based on congressional district and statewide results.

To win the presidency, a candidate must secure 270 electoral votes — a majority of the 538 possible votes.

How does it work?

When casting your ballot for president in November, you won't just be voting for one person. Instead, you'll be voting for the electors that will represent your state in voting for those candidates.

Under this system, more weight is given to a single vote in a small state than to the vote of someone in a large state, leading to outcomes at times that have been at odds with the popular vote.

It also affects how candidates campaign. Because the outcome is almost certain in solidly Republican states and solidly Democratic states, candidates tend to focus most of their efforts on a handful of swing states that have split their votes in recent elections.

How are electors for the Electoral College chosen?

The process for selecting electors varies by state, but typically, they are chosen by the state’s political parties. When a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, the electors from that party are designated to represent the state in the Electoral College.

Electors are allocated based on how many representatives a state has in the House of Representatives, plus its two senators. 

For example, California, the most populous state, has 52 representatives in Congress. Combine that with the two senators each state is allotted, and the total comes to 54 electoral votes. 

There are 535 members of Congress, but there are 538 electoral votes. The extra three electoral votes are for Washington, D.C, which doesn't have a voting representation in Congress. The number of representatives in Congress are based on population and the Census, taken every 10 years, helps determine how many seats each state gets.

Since the last presidential election, 13 states have either lost or gained Electoral College votes, because of the latest 2020 U.S. census. 

Members of Congress cannot serve as electors.

How and when are the votes counted?

After state election officials certify their elections, electors meet in their individual states — never as one body — to certify the election. This year, that will happen on Dec. 17.

Once a state’s electors have certified the vote, they send a certificate to Congress. Congress then formally counts and certifies the vote at a special session on Jan. 6. The vice president presides as the envelopes for each state are opened and verified.

How many electoral votes are needed to win?

A simple majority of electoral votes are needed to win: 270. 

What happens if there's a tie?

There's a slim chance the Electoral College could result in a 269-269 tie. There's an even smaller chancer a third-party candidate could win one state and prevent the Democrat or Republican from reaching 270. 

If the two candidates are tied, or if no candidate gets 270 electoral votes, the presidential election heads to Congress. The House of Representatives would elect the president from the three candidates who got the most electoral votes, but each state's congressional delegation only gets one vote. That has happened only twice, in 1801 and 1825.

The Senate would elect the Vice President, with each senator casting one vote. 

Can lawmakers object?

Lawmakers can object to a state's results during the congressional certification, as several Republicans did after the 2020 election. On Jan. 6, 2021, the House and Senate both voted to reject GOP objections to the Arizona and Pennsylvania results.

After Trump tried to overturn his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden and his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Congress updated the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act to make it harder to object and to more clearly lay out the vice president's ceremonial role, among other changes. Trump had pressured Vice President Mike Pence to try and object to the results — something the vice president has no legal standing to do.

Once Congress certifies the vote, the new or returning president will be inaugurated Jan. 20 on the steps of the Capitol.

Why do we use the Electoral College?

The Electoral College was a compromise between founders who wanted Congress to choose the president and those who wished for the people to do it, according to the National Archives.

There were concerns on one side that allowing members of Congress to choose would open the door to corruption. On the other side, the concern was that people living a significant distance away wouldn't be fully educated on the candidates.

The Electoral College is what they landed on. By the way, you will find the term "electors" in the Constitution, but not "Electoral College."

If you think this isn't a perfect system, neither did the people who came up with it.

"It wasn't like the Founders said, 'Hey, what a great idea! This is the preferred way to select the chief executive, period,'" said George Edwards III, an emeritus political science professor at Texas A&M University, according to History.com. "They were tired, impatient, frustrated. They cobbled together this plan because they couldn't agree on anything else."

Will the U.S. ever switch to a popular vote system?

That will probably take a Constitutional amendment. The National Archives says there have been more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject.

An amendment is not easy in today's partisan politics. Two-thirds of the House and 2/3 of the Senate must pass the amendment, then 3/4 of states must ratify it. Or 2/3 of state legislatures can bypass Congress by calling a constitutional convention and 3/4 quarters of all the states must ratify it. It does not require the president's approval.