The electoral college: how it works

When Americans go to vote on 6 November (assuming they have not voted early by post or in person – a whole different story…), they are not directly voting for a president, writes Felicity Spector.

In fact, to become president of the United States, you do not even have to win a majority of the popular vote. Just ask Al Gore, who lost out to George W Bush in 2000 under the electoral college system.

The system was designed to make sure the winner had secured enough popular support to allow him to govern, and that it was distributed as widely as possible across the whole country.

So, as laid out by the constitution, voters in each state select a certain number of electors, who then all meet together in the electoral college to choose the president and the vice-president.

There are 538 electors altogether, divided proportionally among the states, plus the District of Columbia: the number of electors equals the number of senators (which is always two) plus the number of US Representatives (which varies according to population, determined by the census).

Path to victory

To become president, a candidate needs a majority, or 270 electoral votes.

Most states have a winner takes all rule, which means that whichever candidate wins the popular vote there, gets the support of all the electors. There are, naturally, exceptions: Maine and Nebraska operate a proportional representation system.

That is why the US election campaign concentrates on a handful of states where voters are evenly divided between both parties. Candidates do not want to waste time campaigning in states which they think they will win easily, nor in those where they have no chance.

In the swing – or battleground – states, though, it is a different story: not just those with large numbers of electoral college votes, like Florida and Ohio, but even the tiny states like New Hampshire, could make all the difference in a close race.

Just like the complicated “path to victory”, the whole process is somewhat arcane. The presidential election is held every four years on the first Tuesday in November. But the electors meet, in their various states, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December.

They cast their ballots for president and vice-president, which are then counted in front of a joint session of congress on 6 January the following year.

The outgoing vice-president, who is head of the senate, presides over the official count, and announces the result.

Finally, at noon on 20 January, the president-elect and his or her vice-president are sworn in.