The presidential elections in the United States are held through an indirect system, which means that candidates do not win based on the popular vote, but are determined by the votes of the Electoral College, made up of 538 electors. If a candidate receives at least 270 Electoral College votes, they will be the winner.
In other US elections, candidates are directly elected by popular vote, but in the case of the Presidency and Vice Presidency, the Electoral College is the one that gives the final votes.
Contrary to what many people think, the Electoral College is not a place, but an electoral process. The number of votes in this system is linked to the number of votes each state has in the country, and the number of members in Congress. Texas and California are the states with the most electors in the College, with 40 and 54 respectively.
The members of this body are elected by political parties in each state.
This is how the Electoral College works in the United States
USA Gov, the website of the United States Government, explained how the Electoral College works, detailing the three key phases of this process:
1 When a person votes, that vote goes to a state count. In 48 states and Washington, D.C., the winner gets all the electoral votes from that state. Maine and Nebraska allocate their electors through a proportional system, meaning the overall winner of the state receives two electoral votes, and then the winner of each district receives one elector.
2 A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors from the Electoral College to win.
3 It is estimated that the vote count will be known on the same night of the election, and then the winner will be determined by the votes of the Electoral College.
"Although the Constitution does not require electors to vote for the candidate chosen by the popular vote of their state, some states do require it. If an elector votes for someone else, they may be fined, disqualified, and replaced by an alternate elector, or they could even be prosecuted by their state," said USA Gov.
Uncommon cases of the Electoral College
The USA Gov detailed that a candidate could win the Electoral College vote but lose the popular vote. This happened in the years 2016, 2000, and three times in the 19th century.
If no candidate receives the majority of the electoral votes, the election goes to Congress.
-The House of Representatives selects the winner of the Presidency among the top three candidates with the most electoral votes.
-The Senate elects the vice president from the two remaining main candidates who have the most electoral votes.
-This happened twice; in 1800, when the House of Representatives intervened to elect Thomas Jefferson, and in 1824 with the election of John Quincy Adams as president.