How the Electoral College works

Every four years, American voters choose a new president — it’s not based on who gets the most votes, but on who wins the Electoral College.

That’s why in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes and still lost to former President Donald Trump, who won more electors.

This Election Day, we get a refresher on how the Electoral College works from Kermit Roosevelt, professor for the Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania. He focuses on constitutional law.

How does the Electoral College work?

“To become president, you don't need to win the popular vote. You need to win a majority of the Electoral College, which is 270 or more.

“Each state gets a number of electors equal to its number of representatives plus its senators. Most states follow a winner-take-all system, where whoever wins the popular vote in that state gets all the state's electors. But some states, notably Maine and Nebraska, can actually split their electors, depending on how the popular vote goes.”

Why did the founding fathers choose this system over a popular vote? 

“First, they were concerned that the average voter wouldn't actually have enough information to pick the right candidate. So, they thought you would get a regional candidate from New England and people in the South wouldn't know them and a southern candidate and people in New England wouldn't know them. But if you moved up one level, sort of, from the ordinary voter to the local elites, they would know all the candidates.

“The second reason was the founders were worried that a popular vote might pressure states to expand the franchise. So if you think about elections in the early days, a lot of the rivalry is between Virginia and Massachusetts. And Virginia as a state wants a Virginian to win the presidency because they'll represent the interests of Virginia. And if you're doing a popular vote, Virginia can make that more likely by just letting more Virginians vote by, for instance, letting the women of Virginia vote, then you've almost doubled the number of Virginians voting. … The reason that they would let women vote would be to get a Virginian man. The founders didn't want that. The Constitution is not an instrument that pushes the states in a pro-democracy direction.”

You mentioned that there are a couple of states that divide up the electors so that it reflects the popular vote. Why wasn't that the system that was chosen? 

“This is another example of a thing that I think most people agree would be an improvement.  Because where did Donald Trump get the most votes in the 2020 election? California. But none of those votes counted. All of California's electoral votes went to Joe Biden. So all of those millions of Republican votes, it's like they didn't exist.

“But again, if you think about it from the perspective of the political party that controls California, the Democrats, it would be a disaster for the Democrats if California decided to award its electoral votes proportionately. The Democrats get a lot of electoral votes from California, and they get all of those votes reliably. Switch to a proportional representation, and unless the Republicans do it in Texas or in Florida, the Democrats are just putting themselves at a huge disadvantage.”

What effect does the Electoral College have on elections?

“I think it's crazy if you look at the way that the campaigns spend their energy and their money and their advertising. And it's not just the campaigning, it's also governing and policies.

“So when someone is president, they have a real incentive to sort of pander to those swing states. And they have a real incentive to treat the states that they can't win as the enemy, which I think is probably even worse.”

Is there a possibility to change the system? 

“A constitutional amendment is very hard. You need two-thirds in each house of Congress just to propose it. Then you need ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures.

“But there is another movement underway to bypass the electoral college, which is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. And the idea there is that because state legislatures get to decide how their electoral Electors are appointed, they can say, ‘We'll give all of our electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote.’ And if states that represent 270 electors do that, then we will have effectively moved to a national popular vote system without actually changing the Constitution.

“It's easier than an amendment, but still in a partisan world, it's going to be very hard.”

Kalyani Saxena produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Peter O'Dowd. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.