The US presidential election is decided by the electoral college, not the national popular vote. The electoral college is made up of 538 electors from the 50 states and DC. Electors are nominated by state political parties and pledge to vote for the candidate who won the statewide popular vote. It is possible for a candidate to become president by winning tight races in key swing states and reaching 270 electoral votes, despite losing the national popular vote.

1. The US presidential election

2. The president of the United States
isn’t directly elected by American
voters but by members of what's
known as the electoral college
Here’s how the system works

3. When Americans go to the polls in presidential
elections they're actually voting for a group of
officials who make up the electoral college

5. The word "college" here simply refers to a group
of people with a shared task. These people are
electors and their job is to choose the president
and vice-president.
The electoral college meets every four years, a
few weeks after election day, to carry out that
task.

6. The number of
electors from each
state is roughly in
line with the size of
its population

7. Each state gets
as many electors
as its number of
Representatives
and Senators in
the US Congress

8. Currently, there are 100
senators and 435 state
Representatives
In addition, the District of
Columbia – Washington D.C. –
has 3 electors. There are
currently 538 electors.
There are
currently
538 electors

9. California has the most electors - 55 – while
the less populated states like Wyoming,
Alaska and North Dakota have the minimum
of three.
Each elector represents one electoral vote
538 electors= 538 electoral votes
a candidate needs to gain a majority of the
votes – 270 or more - to win the presidency.

10. States give all their
electoral college votes
to the candidate who
won the poll of popular
voters in the State.

11. For example, if a
candidate wins 50.1%
of the vote in Texas,
they are awarded all
of the state's 38
electoral votes.

12. Forty-eight states and the District of
Columbia have a winner-take-all system
Thereare only two states -Maine and
Nebraska- which divide up their electoral
college votes according to the proportion
of votes each candidate receives.

13. This is why presidential candidates
target specific "swing states" =
states where the vote could go
either way - rather than trying to
win over as many voters as
possible across the country.

14. It's therefore possible for a candidate to
become president by winning a number
of tight races in certain states, despite
having fewer votes across the country.

15. Every state they win gets them
closer to the 270 electoral college
votes they need.!!!

16. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia
have a winner-take-all system, in which the
party whose candidate wins the popular vote
in a state appoints all that state’s electors to
the Electoral College.

17. Then, on the first
Monday after the
second Wednesday in
December, members
of the Electoral
College meet in their
respective states and
cast their official
votes for president
and vice president

18. How Electors Are Chosen
the Constitution states that
electors can’t be a member
of Congress, or hold federal
office, but left it up to
individual states to figure
out everything else

19. Today, the most common method of
choosing electors is by state party
convention. Each political party’s
state convention nominates a list of
electors

20. Political parties usually choose
people whom they want to reward for their
service to and support of the party.
Electors can be party leaders in the state,
or people who have some kind of
personal or professional connection with
the party’s candidate.

21. Do electors have to vote for the
candidate who won?

22. In some states, electors could vote
for whichever candidate they prefer,
regardless of which party appointed
them. But in practice, electors almost
always vote for the candidate who
wins the most votes in their state.
If an elector votes against their
state's presidential pick, they are
termed "faithless".

23. What Are ‘Faithless Electors’?
they are electors who do not
vote for the state’s winner.
They do not respect the popular
vote in their state
most states have adopted
various laws to enforce the
electors’ pledge

25. At the time of the Court’s
decision, 32 states had passed
laws that bind electors, while
18 states had laws giving
electors the freedom to vote
independently—

26. When the US constitution
was being drawn up in 1787,
a national popular vote to
elect a president was
practically impossible. This
was because of the size of
the country and the difficulty
of communication

27. So, the Fathers of the
Constitution created the
electoral college, with each
state choosing electors.

28. Smaller states favoured
the system as it gave them
more of a voice than a
nationwide popular vote
to decide the president.

29. Since the number of electoral
votes was determined by the
size of a state's population,
southern states had more
influence in electing a
president than a direct public
vote would have given them.

30. The electoral college was
also favoured by southern
states, where slaves made
up a large portion of the
population.
Even though slaves didn't
vote, they were counted
in the US census ……as
three-fifth of a person

31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9H3gvnN468