how does the voting method work in the election?

In the United States, the presidential election is a duel in 51 rounds: the 50 states plus the federal capital of Washington. In each state, American citizens do not choose directly between candidates, but they vote for electors who represent one party or the other. It is then these electors who nominate the new president. When a party comes first in a state, even narrowly, it wins all of its major voters. Each of them represents one vote. With 538 electors in total, the first candidate to obtain 270 of them wins the election.

Depending on their population, the states do not have the same weight in the vote. For example, in California, there are 54 electoral votes compared to only 3 in Delaware. With this system, it happens that the winner obtains fewer votes across the country, as was the case in 2016 when Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton.

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