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The U.S. presidential election will take place on Tuesday, November 5. The winner will take office in January 2025 for a four-year term.
Americans vote for president and vice president on the ballot, though in practice, they direct electors to choose the governing team.
Electors serve only in the election of the president and vice president. In other elections, such as those for the House of Representatives or the Senate, candidates are elected directly by the voters.
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Electors are citizens or local officials chosen by each state’s political parties to represent the population in the Electoral College, the body that formally elects the president and vice president.
The total number of electors (538) is nearly equivalent to the total number of U.S. congressional representatives (535). The additional three electors represent Washington, D.C., which is not part of any state.
Each state has two senators, which translates to two electors, and its number of House representatives, which determines the additional electors, varies based on the state’s population.
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For example, California, the most populous U.S. state with nearly 40 million residents, elects 53 representatives and 2 senators, resulting in a total of 55 electors (53 + 2 = 55).
In contrast, Wyoming, the least populous state with about 580,000 residents, elects 2 senators and just 1 representative, giving it a total of 3 electors (2 + 1 = 3).
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Electors are essentially mandated to vote for the candidate chosen by the voters in their state.
However, electors are legally bound to follow the voters’ choice only in 38 states (plus Washington, D.C.). In the remaining states, they do have the option to vote otherwise, though this is rare.
Initial exit polls are released on election night, but electors officially vote in December when they meet in their respective states.
The candidate who secures 270 electoral votes is elected president.
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In 48 out of 50 states (plus Washington, D.C.), a “winner-takes-all” system is used, so if a candidate wins the majority of votes (50% + one vote), they receive all the electors.
The only exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, where electors are allocated proportionally based on each candidate’s share of the vote.
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In the past, a candidate has sometimes won more states but lost the election because their opponent won states with more electors.
For instance, in 1960, John Kennedy (303 electors) defeated Richard Nixon (219 electors), even though Nixon won in 26 states compared to Kennedy’s 22.
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The same has happened with the overall popular vote.
This has occurred five times since 1824, including twice in the last 24 years. Al Gore (2000) and Hillary Clinton (2016) received more votes than George W. Bush and Donald Trump, respectively, but still lost the election.
In the Gore-Bush case, Gore received half a million more votes than Bush nationwide, but Bush won the presidency due to a 537-vote margin in Florida, which awarded him all of the state’s electors (a swing state at the time).
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While most states consistently vote for one party over the years (e.g., California for Democrats, Texas for Republicans), a small number of states have closely contested races and ultimately determine the election outcome.
These swing states are different in every election.
For example, Florida, which was considered a swing state from the 1990s to 2020, is now considered “red” (Republican).
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Candidates concentrate their efforts there because of the uncertainty around swing state voters.
2016, for example, H. Clinton didn’t campaign in California, which she won comfortably, and D. Trump skipped Texas.
However, both visited Florida over 35 times, where Trump ended up winning by just 100,000 votes out of more than 9 million.
