The Electoral College is a group of representatives, called electors, who are chosen by each U.S. state to formally cast votes for the president and vice president of the United States. The number of electors a state has is based on its total number of its senators and representatives in Congress. In most cases, electors cast their votes for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state. The Electoral College is a unique feature in U.S. democracy that was more or less intended to balance power between states. In 2024, the number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency is 270.
At times, the Electoral College ends up producing a president that did not win the popular vote nationwide. For that reason and others, the Electoral College is one of the most debated and often misunderstood aspects of the U.S. presidential election process. While it has shaped the course of American politics for over two centuries, many citizens are unsure of why it was created or how it functions today.
To offer some perspective on this complicated issue, we turned to Dr. Christopher Lawrence, professor and chair of the University's Department of Political Science.
