America's Electoral System (2): How the President Is Elected: The Electoral College and the Road to 270
[Key points]
The president is chosen indirectly, by the Electoral College: 538 electors, and 270 electoral votes win
48 states award all their electors to the statewide winner; Maine and Nebraska split theirs by congressional district
Four presidents have won the Electoral College while losing the national popular vote
1. You are really voting for electors
The president is elected by the Electoral College, a mechanism written into Article II of the Constitution and the Twelfth Amendment. When voters mark a presidential candidate's name in November, the legal meaning of that mark is narrower: it awards their state's electoral votes to the slate of electors pledged to that candidate's party.
There are 538 electors. Each state's number equals its congressional delegation - its House members, apportioned by population, plus two senators. The District of Columbia, though it has no voting members of Congress, receives three electors under the Twenty-third Amendment. A majority of 538 - that is, 270 - is the winning line.
2. Winner-take-all, with two exceptions
In 48 states, the rule is winner-take-all: the candidate who finishes first in the statewide popular vote receives every one of that state's electoral votes. Winning a state by a thousand votes or by a million makes no difference. This is the single most important key to understanding American presidential elections.
Two states use the congressional district method: Maine and Nebraska award two electors to the statewide winner and one elector to the winner of each congressional district. Their electoral votes can therefore split between candidates, as happened in both states in 2024.
3. From November's vote to January's inauguration
After Election Day, states certify their results in early December, and electors meet in mid-December in their state capitals to cast the official electoral ballots, which are sent to Washington. On January 6, a joint session of Congress, presided over by the vice president, counts them in public. If no candidate reaches 270, the House of Representatives decides in a contingent election - each state delegation casting one vote, 26 needed - while the Senate picks the vice president. On January 20, the new president takes the oath of office.
An elector who votes against the statewide result is called a faithless elector. Seven faithless votes were counted in 2016. In Chiafalo v. Washington (2020), the Supreme Court unanimously held that states may penalize or replace faithless electors, and most states now have such laws.
4. How a candidate can win the popular vote and lose the presidency
Because electoral votes are allocated state by state under winner-take-all, a candidate can pile up huge popular-vote margins in a few large states, finish second nationwide in raw votes, yet still reach 270 - or the reverse. It has happened four times: 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016. The classic case is 2000: Al Gore won the national popular vote by about 540,000 ballots, but George W. Bush carried Florida by 537 votes, took all of Florida's electoral votes, and won the presidency 271 to 266.
Supporters argue the system forces candidates to build geographically broad coalitions and confines recount fights to individual states; critics argue it lets a handful of swing states decide the outcome and offends one-person-one-vote intuition. Abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment - two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states - which is why the debate continues but the institution endures.
(Previous: the big picture. Next: how Congress is elected.)
Related: America's Electoral System (1): The Big Picture: What U.S. Elections Actually Decide
Related: America's Electoral System (3): How Congress Is Elected: Senate, House and Redistricting
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：白宫北面。美国总统由选举人团选出，而非由全国普选票直接决定。Beethoven 摄／Wikimedia Commons（CC BY-SA 4.0）
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (1): The Big Picture: What U.S. Elections Actually Decide
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (2): How the President Is Elected: The Electoral College and the Road to 270This story
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (3): How Congress Is Elected: Senate, House and Redistricting
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (4): The Midterms: What Is on the Ballot on November 3, 2026
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (5): Primaries and Nominations: How Candidates Are Chosen
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (6): How Voters Cast Ballots: California in 2026 as an Example
- 2026-10-20America's Electoral System (7): Counting, Certification, and a Path into Public Office
