How the Electoral College Works in 6 Minutes

The Electoral College is the system that dictates how our next president is elected. Contrary to popular belief, when you or I go to the polls to vote, we are not actually voting for a presidential nominee. We are voting for an elector.

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Script:

We often believe that we live in a purely democratic nation. That we live in a nation in which the people elect their leaders through their votes. That the people get to decide who the next president will be. And while this idea is part of our national story, it is not entirely true. In fact it is not the people who get to elect the president, but instead the members of an electoral college.
You see, every four years a presidential election happens and it is not you or me, but the Electoral College that directly elects the president. Citizens who vote for a presidential candidate are actually voting for what are called “electors.” These people pledge to vote for the presidential candidate that gets the popular vote in their state.

Electors are represented in each of the 50 states. The amount of electors each state has coincides with how many Congressional members there are in each state. For example California right now has 53 members in the House of Representatives and 2 in the Senate, therefore California gets 55 electoral votes. Washington D.C. also gets an electoral vote which is based on the same number of the least populated state. Right now D.C. gets 3 electoral votes and there are a total of 538 electors who make up the electoral college. That means only 538 people make the final decision on which presidential candidate becomes president.
Most electors have pledged to vote for which ever candidate has won the most votes in a particular state. So for example during the 2012 election between Barak Obama and Mitt Romney, Obama won the popular vote in New York and all 29 electors in New York voted for Obama. The only exceptions to this pledge is in Nebraska and Maine which both use a congressional district method. Despite this difference, in every election both states have never split their electoral votes and have always ended up following the statewide popular vote.

One strange fact is that electors are not required by law to vote for the candidates that they have pledged their votes toward. Despite its legality, however, there have only been 157 cases of electors who have voted contrary to their pledge. These are called faithless electors. It should be noted that not once in the history of an election, have faithless electors changed the outcome of any presidential election. There are also many reasons why most electors remain faithful. Most electors have been chosen due to their loyalty to their political party and run the risk of political retaliation and possible criminal penalties in some states, if they vote against their pledge.

The way a president wins an election is by receiving at least 270, or the absolute majority, of electoral college votes. If no candidate receives a majority, or at least 270 votes, then the House of Representatives will select the president.

Months before election day, electors are nominated to their positions by each political party. On election day when you or I are at the polls and when we are voting for a presidential candidate, we are actually voting for an elector. These electors, will then meet up in their respective state capitols and sign something called the “Certification of Vote,” which is then delivered to the Office of the President of the U.S. Senate. It is on January 6 when the U.S. Congress convenes and announces the Certificates of Vote and declares the official winner.

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