Distribution of Electoral Votes (2024)

FAQs

What is the distribution of the Electoral College votes? ›

For California, this means we get 54 votes (2 senators and 52 members of the House of Representatives) --- the most of any state.

Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of Senators and Representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its Senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.

Since 1992, all but two states have followed the winner takes all method of allocating electors by which every person named on the slate for the ticket winning the statewide popular vote are named as presidential electors. Maine and Nebraska are the only states not using this method.

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives elects the President from the three (3) Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes.

A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half of all electors—to win the presidential election. In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote. But the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when the electors meet in their states.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators.

We also analyze the impact of partisan effects on each party's ability to translate votes into seats under different electoral environments. Widespread gerrymandering could limit the electoral power of voters in many affected districts, even if biases mostly cancel out between parties at the national level.

The Electoral College: Frequently Asked Questions

How was the Electoral College created? The founding fathers established the Electoral College in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election by a popular vote of the whole citizenry.

Who selects the electors? Choosing each State's electors is a two-part process. First, the political parties in each State choose slates of potential electors sometime before the general election. Second, during the general election, the voters in each State select their State's electors by casting their ballots.

What state split its electoral votes between two candidates in 1860? ›

However, due to how New Jersey's members of the Electoral College were selected, Lincoln won four of New Jersey's seven electoral votes. New Jersey's College of Electors met at the State House on December 7, 1860 to cast votes for the President and Vice President, with Joseph C. Hornblower presiding.

How is the number of electors in each state determined? Each State is allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives - which may change each decade according to the size of each State's population as determined in the Census.

Of the five winners who lost the popular vote, three (Adams, Harrison, and Trump) ran for reelection four years later and lost the popular vote again and the election as well, one (Bush) ran and won the election as well as the popular vote, and one (Hayes) did not run for reelection.

This year's group of swing states is therefore smaller. The list includes Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University and law professor at University of Minnesota.

A candidate must receive 270 of the 538 electoral votes to become President or Vice President. If a candidate for President fails to receive 270 votes, the House itself will choose the President from among the three individuals who received the most electoral votes.

Amendment XII

And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

The Legislative Branch | whitehouse.gov.