Electoral College
The Electoral College
The Electoral College is both a body of representatives and also the process by which such representatives, called “ electors ,” cast votes to elect the President and Vice President of the United States.
Introduction
In the United States, the public does not directly elect the president or vice president. Rather, they are elected indirectly through the Electoral College. This election procedure , governed by Twelfth Amendment of the United States Constitution , provides that citizens cast votes for “electors” who, in turn, directly elect the president and vice president. Each state is allotted a number of electors equal to the number of congressional representatives and senators from that state. There are 538 electors who represent “the sum of the nation’s 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 electors given to the District of Columbia.” A presidential candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes—at least 270—to win outright. Although it has never happened, if the vote results in a tie at 269 to 269, then the Twelfth Amendment provides that the House of Representatives will vote to break the tie and elect the president and vice president.
Mechanics of the Election Process
A President of the United States is elected every four years. Since the ratification of the Twenty-Second Amendment in 1952, each president may now serve a maximum of two terms of office—for a total of eight years. The two terms need not be consecutive (see, e.g., President Grover Cleveland, serving 1885–1889 and 1893–1897). Although for a short time the office of Vice President was filled by the runner-up in the presidential race, the Twelfth Amendment changed this procedure, instead requiring that the president and vice president each be elected in separate votes by the Electoral College. As a result, candidates for President now choose who will run alongside them as their “running-mate” to serve as their vice president, and electors cast their votes, though separately, for the running-mate of the candidate they have voted for in the presidential race.
Before a presidential election, each political party in the United States—today the two major parties being the Democratic Party and the Republican Party—select and nominate a single presidential and vice presidential candidate to represent that political party in the general election. This is done through a preliminary election process called the “presidential primary election,” in which citizens vote to select the political party’s candidates.
In the general election, each party’s candidates correspond with their own unique slate of potential electors . When a citizen casts a vote for a party’s presidential candidate, that citizen is in fact voting for that candidate’s slate of electors. Of the 50 states, 48 have "winner-take-all" systems . A winner-take-all system assigns that state's entire slate of electors to the candidate who won the popular vote in the state, regardless of how close the popular vote in the state was. In contrast, Maine and Nebraska use a different system, instead dividing their states into districts and assigning one electoral vote per district, determined by the popular vote in each district, while granting two electoral votes to the statewide winner. Under this system, Maine and Nebraska may sometimes split their electoral votes between candidates (for example, Maine split its four electoral votes 3-1 in both 2020 and 2016, and Nebraska split its five electoral votes 4-1 in 2020). There is no federal statute binding electors to vote for the presidential candidate who won their state’s (or state district’s) popular vote. Twenty-six states have, however, adopted such statutes.
After each state has submitted its electors' votes, the votes are counted, and a president and vice-president are elected. Usually, the Electoral College result matches the candidate who received the most votes nationwide ( i.e., the winner of the “popular vote”). In 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 , however, the Electoral College winner—and thus President-elect—lost the popular vote.
Why Have an Electoral College?
According to a 2023 survey from Pew Research Center, 65% of American adults are in favor of switching from the Electoral College to a nationwide popular vote.
The Electoral College has always been controversial. Those who oppose using the Electoral College argue that it is unfair for a party’s candidates to receive 270 electoral votes—and thereby win the election—when they have lost the popular vote among the citizens. Though this is true (and has happened in 9% of presidential elections), supporters argue that the Electoral College facilitates cohesiveness of the country by preventing candidates from focusing their platforms only on the interests of citizens residing in the most populous cities and states.
[Last updated in September of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team ]
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