Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have spent months traveling the country on the campaign trail for the 2024 presidential election, vying for votes to win the US White House.
With each new presidential election cycle, Americans ask themselves the same question, keeping in mind the power of the Electoral College: “Will my vote count?”
Elected local and state officials in the United States can take office by winning a popular vote. However, the President of the United States is chosen with the help of the Electoral College and the popular vote.
To win the White House, a candidate needs to win at least 270 electoral votes. (Soeren Stache/Photo in partnership with Getty Images)
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In most cases, the popular vote and the electoral vote mirror each other, but there have been few instances in history where the two have been different. Most recently, in 2016, Trump won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
What is the Electoral College?
The Electoral College is the formal process by which the President and Vice President of the United States are elected.
“As we know, the Electoral College was created by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1804. Currently, the total number of electors is 538, and a candidate must win at least 270 electors. We need people,” FOX News said. Todd Pirro explained this on “Fox & Friends” in November 2020.
In the Electoral College, Washington DC has its own three electors.
According to USA.gov, in the 48 states that include Washington, D.C., the winner of the popular vote receives all of that state's electoral votes. Officials said this is separate from Maine and Nebraska, which have proportional systems.
In 2016, Donald Trump won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote to his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and was elected president. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
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How does the Electoral College work?
The popular vote will take place in November, but electoral votes will not be cast until about a month later, in mid-December.
According to the National Archives website, who is chosen as a state's elector, how they are chosen, and when they are chosen varies by state, but a two-part system is in place.
The slate of electors is selected at the state party convention or voted on by the party central committee in accordance with state or national party rules.
During the general election, voters in each state vote to choose electors to represent their decisions in the presidential election. The elector's name may or may not appear on the ballot.
Although electors pledge to vote for a particular candidate, they are not legally obligated to do so. There is no federal law requiring electors to vote a certain way, but there are penalties, including being disqualified from voting in the future.
Over the years, there have been many calls to change the Electoral College as we know it.
Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden withdrew from the race. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
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“Hundreds of amendments have been proposed over the years to change the electoral system, but only after Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election did it pass. Only one came close,” Pirro said. “Although the 1969 bill replacing the electoral college with a popular vote was passed by the House of Representatives and supported by President Nixon, it was ultimately filibustered and killed in the Senate, where it remains in place.”
Recently, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called for the complete abolition of the Electoral College.
“I think everyone knows that the Electoral College needs to be abolished,” he said at a fundraiser in California in October, Bloomberg reported. “We need a national popular vote, but that's not the world we live in.”
Repealing the system created by the Founding Fathers would require major constitutional changes.
