How is the winner of a presidential election decided?

A total of 538 electors form the Electoral College. Each elector casts one vote following the general election. The candidate who gets 270 votes or more wins. The newly elected President and Vice President are then inaugurated on January 20th.

How many electors does the Electoral College consist of?

Federal office holders cannot be electors. Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president.

How many electors does each state get?

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.

How is it determined how many electors each State has?

What is the final way to be elected president?

The final way to be elected for president is to have one’s name written in at the time of election as a write-in candidate. This is used for candidates who did not fulfill the legal requirements to be pre-listed on the voting ticket.

How many electoral votes does it take to elect a president?

Under the original system established by Article Two, electors could cast two votes to two different candidates for president. The candidate with the highest number of votes (provided it was a majority of the electoral votes) became the president, and the second-place candidate became the vice president.

What happens if no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes?

If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives. House members choose the new president from among the top three candidates. The Senate elects the vice president from the remaining top two candidates. This has only happened once.

How do political parties elect their candidates?

Though not codified by law, political parties also follow an indirect election process, where voters in the 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories, cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party’s nominating convention, who then in turn elect their party’s presidential nominee.