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Find out how a candidate becomes president of the United States. Learn about caucuses and primaries, political conventions, the general election, the Electoral College, and more. Overview of the presidential election process
- Voting and Election Laws
In the U.S., no one is required by law to vote in any local,...
- Requirements for Presidential Candidates
Once a candidate raises or spends more than $5,000 for their...
- Inauguration of The President
Inauguration Day occurs every four years on January 20 (or...
- Voting and Election Laws
Jan 5, 2021 · President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump.
- Allyson Waller
- What Is The Electoral College and How Does It Work?
- How Was The Electoral College established?
- How Did Slavery Shape The Electoral College?
- What Are Faithless Electors?
- What Happens If No Candidate Wins A Majority of Electoral College Votes?
- Are Electoral College Votes Distributed Equally Between States?
- What Did The 2020 Election Reveal About The Electoral College?
The Electoral College is a group of intermediaries designated by the Constitution to select the president and vice president of the United States. Each of the 50 states is allocated presidential electors equal to the number of its representatives and senators. The ratification of the 23rd Amendment in 1961 allowed citizens in the District of Columb...
The Constitutional Convention in 1787 settled on the Electoral College as a compromise between delegates who thought Congress should select the president and others who favored a direct nationwide popular vote. Instead, state legislatures were entrusted with appointing electors. Article II of the Constitution, which established the executive branch...
At the time of the Constitutional Convention, the northern states and southern states had roughly equal populations. However, nonvoting enslaved people made up about one-third of the southern states’ population. As a result, delegates from the South objected to a direct popular vote in presidential elections, which would have given their states les...
Ever since the 19th century reforms, states have expected their electors to honor the will of the voters. In other words, electors are now pledged to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state. However, the Constitution does not require them to do so, which allows for scenarios in which “faithless electors” have voted against the popula...
If no ticket wins a majority of Electoral College votes, the presidential election is sent to the House of Representatives for a runoff. Unlike typical House practice, however, each state only gets one vote, decided by the party that controls the state’s House delegation. Meanwhile, the vice-presidential race is decided in the Senate, where each me...
Each state is allocated a number of electoral votes based on the total size of its congressional delegation. This benefits smaller states, which have at least three electoral votes — including two electoral votes tied to their two Senate seats, which are guaranteed even if they have a small population and thus a small House delegation. Based on pop...
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential race, Donald Trump and his allies fueled an effort to overturn the results of the election, spreading repeated lies about widespread voter fraud. This included attempts by a number of state legislatures to nullify some of their states’ votes, which often targeted jurisdictions with large numbers of Black vo...
Since the establishment of the electoral college system in 1789, there have been more than 150 “faithless” electors, so called because they did not cast a vote for their party’s chosen candidate. None of these faithless electors has ever altered the outcome of an election.
The modern nominating process of U.S. presidential elections consists of two major parts: a series of presidential primary elections and caucuses held in each state, and the presidential nominating conventions held by each political party. This process was never included in the Constitution, and thus evolved over time by the political parties ...
In the first presidential election, in 1789, four states (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) used systems based on popular election. Popular election gradually replaced legislative appointment, the most common method through the 1790s, until by the 1830s all states except South Carolina chose electors by direct popular vote.
Oct 23, 2020 · How does the Electoral College work? The president is elected by a college of 538 electors and it takes 270 votes to win.
