After political parties select their presidential nominees, candidates campaign for months and take part in a series of nationally broadcast debates. They try to persuade voters that they have the best plan for the country and can be trusted. On Election Day, citizens go to the polls and vote for their preferred candidate. The person who receives the most votes is deemed the winner, but in reality, only the Electoral College votes matter. The Electoral College is composed of 538 members—48 States plus Washington, DC and the U.S. territories—who are allocated a number of electoral votes based on their respective populations. Each State gets one vote for each member of the House of Representatives and two senators, plus three for the District of Columbia. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to be elected president.
Historically, only a handful of electors have cast deviant votes. Most of these are a result of the death of a pledged presidential or vice presidential candidate, and one is a case of an elector switching his or her vote to another candidate for no apparent reason.
Electors meet in December after the general election and vote for the President and Vice President. This is a formal process that happens in every State, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which use proportional voting systems. The States’ electoral votes are then certified by Congress and the new President is inaugurated in January.