An Electoral College elects the Presidentof the United States of America. He is not elected directly by the people.
American people vote for the people who are going to elect the president.
Each state has two electors who are senators, plus other representatives, in proportion to the number of inhabitants in each state :
California has 55 electoral votes. Texas has 34. New York has 31. Both the District of Columbia and Alaska have only 3. The total number of electors is 538. The winner of the popular vote in a state gets all the Electoral College votes in that state : this is the rule in most states.
Maine and Nebraska are exceptions : two electors’ votes are given to the candidate who got the most votes. The other votes are given in each district to the candidate who got the most votes there.
If a candidate gets 270 votes, he will become president.
If he does not win the national popular vote, this does not mean he will lose the election. If he wins the popular vote, this does not mean he will become president ! (Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 but George W. Bush won the majority of the votes in the Electoral College).
This means that the electors in the College will vote for the candidate they have promised their vote for or for the candidate who gets the popular votes in their state. Yet, some of them sometimes vote for another candidate, and this is illegal in some states, and not in others.
If there is no majority, the House of Representatives will vote. Then, each state will be represented by only one vote.
The electors have been chosen by the parties before the election. People vote for the electors on voting day in the state where they are residents.
The electors will meet in state capitals on Monday, 13th December to vote for the President. The official results will be declared on January 6th, 2009. The new president will be sworn into office on January 20th, 2009 at noon.
