Upon first (and maybe second) glance, the US Electoral College — the proportional system that ultimately determines the winner of the US presidential election — may seem impossible to make heads or tails of. Let us break it down for you. 

Why did the US decide on this system? 

The Electoral College was established by the framers of the US Constitution in 1787. At the time, the US was a brand-new country and fully independent from Britain after the Revolutionary War. 

The men, referred to in the United States as the Founding Fathers, wanted to establish an electoral system that would not centralize power, which they worried could create a monarchy-like structure similar to the one they had just freed themselves from. 

But the idea of elections entirely by the people posed its own challenges. Some of the framers were concerned the electorate was not educated enough to make responsible and informed voting decisions. National literacy rates were low, and, at the time, no other country chose its leaders through a popular vote.

The framers saw the Electoral College as a sort of compromise between a population vote and giving a single entity the responsibility of picking the president. So they decided that appointed electors in each state would vote for the president.

How does the Electoral College work? 

The US government is comprised of the theoretically coequal executive branch (the president and Cabinet), the judicial branch (the Supreme Court) and the legislative, or lawmaking, branch (Congress). Congress is made up of two entities: the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

Each state has two members of the Senate. They represent the entire state at the federal level. House representatives represent individual districts within a state.

The number of congressional representatives a state has is determined via the US Census, which counts the population every 10 years. 

California is the most densely populated state, so it has the highest number of representatives: 52. States with relatively small populations, such as Alaska, only have a single representative. 

Each US state receives an electoral vote for each member of its Congressional delegation. So, California has 54 electoral votes — 52 for its House representatives, and two for its Senators. 

Alaska has three: one for its House representative, and two for its Senators. 

Altogether, there are 538 members of Congress, and therefore 538 electoral votes up for grabs in the US presidential race — 270 are needed to win the election.

Whom do Americans vote for if not the president?   

When US citizens vote in the presidential election, they are voting for the candidate's electors. In most states, if a candidate wins the general population vote, they will receive all its electors. If Kamala Harris wins the majority vote in California, for example, she will get all 54 electoral votes. 

Maine and Nebraska are the only states that do not award all electors to a single candidate based on the majority vote. In both of these states, electoral votes can be split between candidates based on how the population voted. 

Although there is no constitutional law requiring electors to vote for the candidate who receives the majority vote in their state, it is extremely rare for electors to vote against their party. According to the US Office of the Federal Registrar, "more than 99% of electors have voted as pledged" in US political history. 

Can a candidate lose the popular vote and still become president? 

Yes. This has occurred five times in US history. Donald Trump lost the popular vote by some 3 million but won the Electoral College in 2016. George W. Bush lost the popular vote but won the College against Al Gore in 2000. In the 1800s, it occurred three times.

What happens if no candidate gets a majority? 

In the rare event that there is a tie and both candidates receive 269 Electoral College votes, or neither receives the required 270, the House of Representatives is tasked with deciding the winner. Each state delegation would receive one vote, and a majority (26) would be needed to win. To date, there has never been a tie in the Electoral College. 

When is the winner announced? 

Congress counts the electoral votes on January 6 and the president is inaugurated on January 20. By the time results come in on election day, the winner is usually clear, and the January 6 announcement does not come as a surprise. But counting the votes can also take some time — in 2020, Joe Biden was announced as the winner on November 7, four days after Election Day on November 3.

What are swing states? Why are they important? 

Most US states vote for the same party year after year. Democrats have won California in the presidential election since 1992, for example. Republicans have won Mississippi since 1980. 

Swing states, on the other hand, "swing" back and forth between voting Republican and voting Democrat. They are where candidates campaign heavily for votes, because they ultimately determine the election.

Political scientists say this year’s battleground states are Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. 

What else are Americans voting for in 2024? 

Americans will also vote for new members of Congress in both the Senate and House of Representatives on November 5. Four hundred and sixty-eight seats — 33 in the Senate and 435 in the House — will be up for grabs.

Many states will also vote on individual state-level ballot measures alongside the presidential vote on November 5. These differ depending on the state. Abortion represents one of the biggest and most politically contentious issues expected to make it on a number of states’ ballots in November.

Edited by: J. Wingard