How the Electoral College works

On November 5, American voters will go to the polls to choose their president for the next four years. However, unlike in France, the American system is indirect. Voters do not nominate a person but rather the political affiliation of their state’s electors. These electors form the Electoral College responsible for officially designating the head of the federal state. This “second presidential election” will be held on December 17.

In almost all states (48 out of 50, plus the District of Columbia, which is not a state but is represented in the Electoral College), when a candidate has a majority, he or she “wins” all the electors. This means that with 50% of the vote plus one, the leading candidate sends all the electors in his or her favor to the Electoral College. This is known as the winner-take-all rule.

Who can be an elector?

Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution states that the president and vice president are chosen by electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,” but without advising or listing any manner. However, the article does specify that “no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.” In practice, electors are often figures who have rendered a service to the party or candidate: party members, lobbyists, local officials or even retired political staff. Bill Clinton, in 2016, served as an elector for his wife, Hillary Clinton.

Basically, before the actual election, each party nominates potential electors in every state.

How many electors are there?

There are 538 electors in the Electoral College, so you need the support of 270 of them to win the presidential election. States have the same number of electors as their number of members in the Congress. The number of electors is therefore proportional to the population of each state, with a minimum of three electors. This method of calculation leads to a slight over-representation of sparsely populated states, such as Alaska, Wyoming and Vermont, which have three electors for 733,536, 586,485 and 647,818 inhabitants, respectively. This means they have more than four electors per million inhabitants In contrast, the majority of states have an average of one or two electors per million inhabitants.

Following a population census, the distribution of electors has changed slightly for 2024: California has lost one, as have Montana, North Carolina and New York, while Texas has gained two. Additionally, the influence of Florida and Colorado gained one vote.

The political balance in most states virtually guarantees victory for one side or the other (California, Colorado and New York have historically voted for the Democrats, while Alaska, Idaho and Alabama have gone for the Republicans). Candidates visit these states less often, since victory is either a foregone conclusion or almost impossible.

Is an elector obliged to respect the vote of their state?

Thirty-three states as well as the District of Columbia have laws requiring electors to follow the popular vote in order to avoid a “faithless elector” situation. These laws may impose penalties such as a $500 fine and cancellation of the vote in states like North Carolina, or the appointment of a substitute elector in states like Montana, Nevada and Washington.

Given that electors are designated by the parties or by the candidates, instances of electors not voting as expected are uncommon, but there have been a few cases. For example, in the 2000 election, Democratic elector Barbara Lett-Simmons abstained from voting rather than casting her vote for Al Gore. This incident did not affect the election outcome, as Republican George W. Bush won with 271 votes out of 538.

Is it possible to win in terms of vote numbers and have a minority of electors?

The US presidential election is an indirect election, so it’s possible to win the largest share of the vote nationwide (the popular vote), but not win a majority of electors in the electoral college.

In US history, this has happened five times, including twice in the 21^st century: in 2000, Democrat Al Gore received 543,895 more votes than Republican George W. Bush and in 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton received 2.86 million more votes than Republican Donald Trump.