The United States uses the Electoral College to formally elect the president and vice president. There is no nationwide popular vote directly determining the winner. Each state and Washington, DC, appoint electors based on its presidential election results.
There are 538 electoral votes in total, and a candidate needs at least 270 of them to win the presidency. After the general election in November, electors meet in December to cast the official Electoral College votes that determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Each state's electoral votes are equal to its representation in Congress: one for each House member plus two for its senators. That gives more populous states more electoral votes, though smaller states receive more electoral votes per resident.
While the national contests do not use popular vote to determine winners, state results do: 48 states and Washington, DC, assign all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins their state's popular vote. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which allocate some, but not all, electoral votes by congressional district. Electors almost always vote for the candidate they were chosen to support, though rare exceptions, known as faithless electors, have occurred.
What does the Constitution say about the Electoral College?
The Constitution established the Electoral College as the process for electing the president, creating a system in which states (not a single nationwide vote) choose the president. Article II gives each state a number of electors proportional to its representation in Congress and allows state legislatures to determine how those electors are appointed. It also requires electors to meet in their own states, cast their votes, and send the certified results to Congress. Congress counts the electoral votes and the president of the Senate declares the winner.
Two constitutional amendments have since updated the process. The 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, requires electors to cast separate votes for president and vice president after the original system produced problems in the elections of 1796 and 1800. In 1796 and 1800, electors did not cast separate votes for president and vice president, producing an opposing-party president and vice president in 1796 and a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr in 1800.
The 23rd Amendment, ratified in 1961, gave Washington, DC, electoral votes allocating it the same number it would receive as a state, up to the number assigned to the least populous state.
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How many electoral votes does each state have and how can it change?
Currently, California has 54 electoral votes, more than any other state. Six states and Washington, DC have the minimum of three votes.
House seats are reapportioned after each decennial census to reflect population changes. States with faster population growth may gain electoral votes while others may lose them. Because the House has 435 voting seats, reapportionment generally shifts electoral votes among states rather than increasing the national total.
The number of electoral votes changed as new states joined the union, creating a need for members in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Electoral College reached its current total of 538 votes for the 1964 election, after Alaska and Hawaii became states and the 23rd Amendment gave Washington, DC, three electors.
How has the Electoral College voted over time?
George Washington received all 69 electoral votes cast in the first presidential election. Since then, the Electoral College has reflected changing political coalitions, population shifts, and the admission of new states. Today, the Electoral College has 538 electors.
Most presidential elections have produced the same winner in both the Electoral College and the national popular vote. But in a handful of them, the candidate who won the presidency did not win the nationwide popular vote. These were:
- 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes won the presidency over Samuel Tilden after disputed returns in four states were resolved in Hayes’s favor.
- 1888: Benjamin Harrison won the Electoral College. Grover Cleveland won more popular votes.
- 2000: George W. Bush won the Electoral College. Al Gore won more popular votes.
- 2016: Donald Trump won the Electoral College. Hillary Clinton won about 2.9 million more popular votes.
Additionally in 1824, Andrew Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes but not a majority. The House of Representatives decided the election and selected John Quincy Adams. Popular-vote comparisons for this election are imprecise, since several states’ legislatures, not voters, chose electors back then.
What happens after Election Day?
After states certify their election results, the appointed electors meet in their respective states in December to cast the official electoral votes for president and vice president. Those votes are sent to Congress, which counts them in early January. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes becomes president and is inaugurated on January 20.
What happens if no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes?
If no presidential candidate receives at least 270 electoral votes, then Congress decides the election. The House of Representatives chooses the president from the top three electoral vote winners, with each state delegation casting one vote. The Senate chooses the vice president from the top two vice presidential candidates. This has happened once under the current system, in 1824, when no candidate won a majority of the 261 electoral votes available at the time.
What are faithless electors?
A faithless elector is an Electoral College member who does not cast a vote or casts a vote for someone other than the candidate they pledged to support. Faithless electors are rare and have never changed the outcome of a presidential election. The Constitution does not require electors to vote for their pledged candidate, but many states do. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that states may require electors to follow the state’s popular vote and may replace or penalize electors who do not.
The National Archives documents a small number of faithless electors throughout history. Most recently, there were seven in 2016: one in Hawaii, two in Texas, and four in Washington state.
