Understanding the Electoral College

In the United States, a presidential candidate is elected not by winning a majority of the national popular vote but through a system called the Electoral College, which grants electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their population.

It’s very unlikely — but theoretically possible — that the presidential election ends with an Electoral College tie. If it did come to pass, here’s how the next president would be determined.

What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn't it changed?

The Founding Fathers had to compromise when it came to devising a system to elect the president.

Every other country that used an electoral college has been unsatisfied with the results and chosen another way to pick a leader.

Today’s process would be unrecognizable to the nation’s founders, who imagined it as an indirect and deliberative system with considerably narrower public participation.

The electoral college outcome doesn’t always reflect the popular vote, but that’s not the only factor that determines how influential your vote is.

In politics, as in military conflict, there is a tendency among generals and journalists alike to fight the last war. But battlegrounds often change.

The very nature of the way the U.S. picks its presidents tends to create a disconnect between the outcome in the Electoral College and the popular vote.

The notion that there were “red states” and “blue states”—and that the former were Republican and the latter Democratic—wasn’t cemented on the national psyche until the year 2000.

A roundup of the best arguments for and against America’s unique system for electing a president. Plus, a look at possible alternatives.