The Electoral College

What if I told you we don't directly elect the president?

We use something called the Electoral College.

Each state gets a certain number of electoral votes.

How many do they get? Great question!

Each state gets the same number of electoral votes as they have representation in Congress.

So if Georgia has 14 representatives and 2 senators, they get 16 electoral votes.

California is the largest and gets 55 electoral votes!

DC is allowed to vote for president, even though they aren't a state.

In the election every four years, people vote for president.

If a person wins the most votes in a state, they get ALL the electoral votes from that state.

Even if they win by one vote!

To win the presidency, the magic number is 270!

That is a majority of the 538 electoral votes total.

It doesn't matter what combination of states you win, 270 is all you need.

There is a small (1%<) that you can get a 269-269 tie or a third party get a few electoral votes.

If that happens, the House of Representatives decides who the president is.

They pick from the top three candidates.

A person can actually get less votes for president overall, but still win the electoral college.

This has happened FOUR times!