ieExplains: What is the electoral college and how does it choose the next US president?
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As the US prepares for another high-stakes election, Donald Trump is aiming for a White House comeback while Kamala Harris is campaigning to make history and become the first woman to be elected president.
The race hinges on 270 electoral votes., stemming from the US Electoral College.
So, what is the Electoral College, and why does it exist?
The electoral college is the system used to elect the US president and vice president.
Unlike in Ireland, where the popular vote decides who becomes president, the US uses a group of electors who cast the official votes for the presidency.
There are 538 electors in total, and a candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win.
These electors are distributed among the states based on population size.
For example, California, the largest state, has 54 electors (or electoral votes), while smaller states like Vermont only have three. The idea is that each state gets a say, but bigger states have a bit more weight.
The American "Founding Fathers" debated about how to elect the president back in the late 18th century.
The Electoral College was decided upon for a number of reasons:
Small states feared that bigger states like New York would dominate if elections were based purely on the popular vote.
The Electoral College gives smaller states more of a voice.
Some of the constitutional framers weren’t big fans of direct democracy and were worried that a popular vote could lead to bad decisions or elect leaders who weren’t truly qualified.
The electors were seen as a safeguard against this.
Communication was slow, and voters across the country couldn’t easily be informed about every candidate.
The Electoral College allowed trusted electors to make the final decision, ensuring it wasn’t just about who was popular in the biggest cities.
To win, a candidate needs to secure 270 out of 538 electoral votes.
Here's how it works:
Each state gets a certain number of electors based on its population — the number of people they have in Congress.
In nearly all states, the system is winner-takes-all; if you win the popular vote in a state, you get all its electoral votes. So, winning a big state like California with 54 electoral votes, Texas with 40 or Flordia with 30 can be crucial.
Two states, Maine and Nebraska, split their electoral votes based on a proportional system.
Because of this system, candidates focus their campaigns on swing states — states that could vote either way.
In the 2020 election, states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan were key to winning the presidency, while in 2024, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are seen as major battleground states.
Here in Ireland, we directly elect our president through the popular vote. So why don’t the Americans do the same?
If they used a national popular vote, the most populous states like California and Texas would dominate.
Smaller states would be almost irrelevant in a national election. The Electoral College gives those smaller states a bigger voice.
The system ensures that a candidate has to win support across the country, not just in the big cities. Without the Electoral College, a candidate could focus only on urban areas and ignore rural America.
The US is a massive country with diverse interests, and the Electoral College ensures that even less populated regions have influence.
The Electoral College reflects the US Constitution’s emphasis on federalism — the idea that the states are sovereign entities. Changing this system would require a major overhaul, and many people are wary of such a significant change.
The system isn’t without its critics who argue in favour of a fairer system of elections.
These arguments include:
Smaller states get more electoral votes per person than big states, meaning a vote in Wyoming (a small state) carries more weight in the Electoral College than a vote in California (a large state).
It’s possible to win the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.
The most recent examples were George W Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016. In both cases, the candidate who won fewer overall votes still became president, which feels undemocratic to many.
Candidates often ignore states where they know they’ll either win easily or lose badly.
For instance, if a state is solidly Democratic — like California — or Republican — like Alabama — presidential hopefuls may not bother campaigning there and instead focus on battleground states.
Electors are supposed to vote based on their state’s result, but occasionally, one or two go rogue, though it has never changed an election outcome.
Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, which is no small task.
It would need:
- Two-thirds majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate,
- Approval from 38 out of 50 states.
Given the current political climate, this is very unlikely to happen anytime soon.