the presidential✪ Doescandidate withthe most votes
always win?

Not always. In fact, there have beenfour presidential elections in which
the winner did not receive a majorityof the popular vote. The first of these wasJohn Quincy Adams in the election of 1824, and themost recent occurred in 2000 in the presidential race
between george w. Bush and Al gore.

How does this happen?
The answer lies in the “Electoral College.” The
drafters of the U.S. Constitution sought to create asystem that balanced the interests of the (then) 13 states
and those of the American people. voters chose themembers of the House of representatives, but statelegislatures (also elected by the people) elected
U.S. senators. And states sent delegates to a body—the Electoral College—that chose the president andvice president.

• thE ElEctoralcollEgE
officially
ElEcts thE
prEsidEnt,
but thE pEoplE
choosE thE
ElEctoral
collEgE
mEmbErs.

32

in 1913, U.S. senators were elected directly by thepeople. And while the Electoral College still officiallyelects the president, the people choose the Electoral
College members.
Here’s how it works.
After the nationwide presidential election is held
in November, the Electoral College meets in december.
In most states, electors cast their votes based on how
the majority of voters in their state voted. The electors
vote in their states on december 15, and Congress
officially counts the results in January.
Each state has a number of electors equal to thenumber of its members in the U.S. House of representatives—determined by a census of the the state’s population, plus its two senators. The district of Columbia,
which is not a state and has no voting representationin Congress, has three Electoral College votes.

There are 538 electors in the Electoral
College; 270 electoral votes are needed towin the presidential election.
most states award electoral votes on awinner-take-all basis. The presidential ticket thatgets the most citizens’ votes receives all that state’s
electoral votes.

• E l E C T or A l C ol l E g E

Americans later amended the Constitution
to make the system more democratic. BeginningTwo states—Nebraska and maine—have experimented
with awarding their electoral votes proportionately
based on citizens’ votes. presidential election strategy
consists of “carrying” a combination of states that
adds up to 270 electoral votes. Election results canturn on the electoral votes in a handful of competitive
state races.
one consequence of the winner-take-all systemis that a candidate can win the most votes nationally
but lose the election.
Imagine that a candidate wins a state by a small
margin and that state has a lot of electoral votes. That
candidate would still receive all of the electoral votes.
So if a candidate wins in California by a small margin,
they get all 55 of California’s electoral votes. That samecandidate may lose in other, smaller states by large
margins and receive fewer popular votes than hisor her opponent. But that candidate would still havethe edge in the Electoral College.
It is important for candidates to campaign in all states,
even ones with smaller populations and fewer electoralvotes, in order to get a total of 270 electoral votes.

••• thEprEsidEntial
ticKEt thatgEts thE
most citiZEns’
VotEs ina statErEcEiVEs
all thatstatE’sElEctoralVotEs.

one consequence of thewinner-take-all system is thata candidate can win the mostvotes nationally but losethe election.
34

College?

It’s in the Constitution, and it is very
difficult to amend the Constitution. The
Electoral College system also reinforces
the two-party system, which means neither of
the two major parties is likely to advocate a change.

But there are other reasons for retaining
the Electoral College.
many Americans like how the Electoral College systemforces presidential candidates to campaign widely—evenin smaller states whose residents might not otherwise havethe chance to see candidates up close. And because presidential candidates cannot garner enough electoral votes
by focusing on a single state or region, they learn about
and address issues of interest to voters in all parts of thecountry. As a consequence, the Electoral College systeminfluences how presidential campaigns are conducted,
which has important implications for the cost of runninga presidential campaign.

• E l E C T or A l C ol l E g E

do Americans✪ Whykeep the Electoral

1233743356655

91156738
334state by state

1010162061031151013815
119669471141418204329• El EC TorAl Col l Eg EElectoral✪ 2016
College votes

163
Electoral votes
are allocatedaccording toeach state's
population,
based on thenational census
taken every
10 years.

✏2016 v 1960

829

↑INCREASEINCREASE =↓DECREASE =SAME =37