Attention, everyone! This is NOT a college you go to when you grow up! This is a group of people who choose our president.

​

WHAT? We don't choose our president? What happened to choosing our own leaders?!?! (Don't worry, I felt the same way when I first heard that)

​

The electoral college was formed as a compromise between having Congress elect the president, and having qualified citizens vote for the president.

​

There are 538 electors (people who make up of the electoral college).

​

You might be wondering, who are the electors? And how do you determine a number of electors?

​

The electors are people who are qualified officials. They are chosen to vote for the candidate in the party they want. (A few time, electors voted for someone other than who they were supposed to, but it has never made a difference. )

​

The number of electors comes from the number of Representatives and Senators your state has. For example, California has 53 Representatives, and 2 Senators. Add that number up, and you get 55. So California has that number of Electoral votes. Note that the electors are NOT the actual Senators and Representatives, it is just the number of them put together. For every state, there will always be at least 3 votes.

​

Most states have a winner-take-all system. So, as an example, California is usually a democratic state. So, probably, in the 2016 election, the majority of citizens will vote for Hillary Clinton. So, in the electoral college, there will be 55 votes for Hillary  Clinton.

 

But two states have an exception - Maine and Nebraska. They have the electors chosen proportionally. So if 75% of Maine votes for Donald Trump, and 25% of Maine votes for Hillary Clinton, the electors will be designated proportionally.

​

The meeting takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. (Clear as mud?) So this election year, it will be on December 19th, 2016.

​

The electors do not all meet together. The electors all meet in the state they are representing.

​

All the elector votes are counted by Congress on January 6th. (That date does not change)

​

The president of the Senate (that's the vice president) then announces who the president and vice president are.

​

So, the electoral college is really confusing. Hopefully, this has made it clearer!