On Election Night, we will all be watching states light up red and blue on our screens. We'll be paying attention to which presidential candidate gets the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the Presidency -- but not which candidate receives the most votes throughout the country.

We hope you will find the brief description below of the Electoral College helpful.

The U.S. Constitution specifies that the President and Vice President are to be chosen every four years by a small group of people (currently 538) who are individually referred to as “presidential electors” and collectively referred to as the “Electoral College.”

The Constitution specifies that each state is entitled to one member of the Electoral College for each of its U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. These 538 electoral votes correspond to

Every 10 years, the 435 U.S. Representatives are reapportioned among the states in accordance with the latest federal census, thereby automatically reapportioning the membership of the Electoral College. The results of this year's census will determine the distribution of electoral votes for 2024 and 2028.

Each political party nominates long-standing party activists and officeholders for the position of presidential elector. Most nominees for the position of presidential elector are nominated by district and state conventions of political parties, but a variety of other methods are used. For example, in Pennsylvania, the presidential candidate himself or herself directly nominates their presidential electors. 

Members of the Electoral College are elected by each state and the District of Columbia on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in presidential election years -- that is, on Election Day November 3. This date is set by law by Congress, and can only be changed by Congress.

Forty-eight of the 50 states elect their presidential electors using the so-called "winner-take-all" rule -- that is, 100% of the state's presidential electors are awarded to the candidate who received the most popular vote in each separate state. 

In Maine and Nebraska, one presidential elector is elected from each of the state's congressional districts, and two presidential electors are elected statewide. For example, in 2016, Maine's electoral votes divided 3-1, with Clinton receiving three and Trump receiving one. Trump received one as a result of Trump's winning one of Maine's two congressional districts. 

The 538 members of the Electoral College cast their votes for President and Vice President in meetings held in the 50 state capitals and the District of Columbia in mid-December of presidential election years. In 2020, the designated day for the meeting of the Electoral College is Monday, December 14, 2020.

Because of state winner-take-all laws, presidential candidates ignore states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind.

State winner-take-all laws have enabled 5 of our 45 Presidents to come into office without winning the most popular votes nationwide.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and D.C.

The National Popular Vote interstate compact will go into effect when enacted by states with a majority of the presidential electors—that is, 270 of 538. After the compact comes into effect, every voter in all 50 states and DC will acquire a direct vote in the choice of all of the presidential electors from all of the states that enacted the compact. All the presidential electors from all the enacting states will be awarded to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.

Thus, the presidential candidate supported by the most voters in all 50 states and DC will thereby win a majority of the presidential electors in the Electoral College (at least 270), and therefore become President.

Please send an email to your state legislators asking them to support the National Popular Vote bill.