There are a total of 538 electoral votes, and the number of votes each state receives is proportional to its size — the bigger the state’s population the more “votes” it gets. For California, this means we get 55 votes (2 senators and 53 members of the House of Representatives) — the most of any state.

Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.

A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators.

In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. Each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election; there are a total of 538 electoral votes. The candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election.

Who selects the electors? Choosing each State’s electors is a two-part process. First, the political parties in each State choose slates of potential electors sometime before the general election. Second, during the general election, the voters in each State select their State’s electors by casting their ballots.

The United States Electoral College is a name used to describe the official 538 Presidential electors who come together every four years during the presidential election to give their official votes for President and Vice President of the United States. No state can have fewer than three electors.

Under the District Method, a State’s electoral votes can be split among two or more candidates, just as a state’s congressional delegation can be split among multiple political parties. As of 2008, Nebraska and Maine are the only states using the District Method of distributing electoral votes.

All jurisdictions use a winner-take-all method to choose their electors, except for Maine and Nebraska, which choose one elector per congressional district and two electors for the ticket with the highest statewide vote.

The three most popular reform proposals include (1) the automatic plan, which would award electoral votes automatically and on the current winner-take-all basis in each state; (2) the district plan, as currently adopted in Maine and Nebraska, which would award one electoral vote to the winning ticket in each …

Boxer and Cohen proposals (2016) On November 15, 2016, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) introduced a proposal to abolish the electoral college and to provide for the direct popular election of the President and Vice President of the United States by the voters in the various states and the District of Columbia.

They cast legally binding votes which, since 1876, have been based on polling taken in each of the 50 constituent states and Washington, D.C. Since 1800, over 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the system have been introduced in Congress.

Weighing of votes

What happens if no presidential candidate gets 270 electoral votes? If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The Senate elects the Vice President from the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.

The United States Electoral College is an example of a system in which an executive president is indirectly elected, with electors representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The votes of the public determine electors, who formally choose the president through the electoral college.

Electoral College Certificates and Votes by State

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. The Senate elects the Vice President from the two vice presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.