1. How Does the U.S. Really Elect a President?
The Story of the Electoral College

2. Electoral College
The U.S. picks the President using “electoral votes”.
There are 538 people called “electors” that make up the
“Electoral College”.

3. Why do we have an Electoral College?
In 1787, while writing the Constitution, the Founding Fathers disagreed about 2 things.
Some worried that people weren’t educated enough to vote.
Some thought that Congress should elect the President.
As a compromise, they came up with the Electoral College.

4. How does the Electoral College work?
All citizens vote on the 1st Tuesday in November. This is the “popular vote”.
The candidate that wins the popular vote, gets the state’s electoral votes. Each state has 2 Senators and the number of Representatives based on their population which makes up their electoral votes.
For example, California has 2 votes for each of their 2 Senators + 53 Representatives = 55 Electoral Votes.

5. So, how does a candidate win?
The candidate who gets the majority of electoral votes wins!
There is a total of 538 electors. The candidate needs at least 270 votes to win!

6. Has anyone won the popular vote, but lost the election?
Yes! It has happened 4 times in our nation’s history.
Because the candidate that wins the majority of the popular votes doesn’t always win the election, some people think it isn’t the fairest way to pick a president. What do you think?