The US presidential election will take place on November 5. But it is possible to say that the candidate who obtains the most votes will not be the winner.

This is to say no that voters directly choose who will be president, and what they call the electoral college that chooses him.

When Americans participate in the presidential election, most of them vote for either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump.

But that vote will only grow to build a group of officials who will represent Miss Harris or Mr. Trump in the Electoral College.

The word “college” simply means a group of pipo who share a task. Say pipo na voters and dia job na to choose who will be president and vice president.

The electoral college meets every four years, a few weeks after Election Day, to accomplish this task.

The number of voters in each state roughly makes up the population. Each state has as many electors as it has legislators for the U.S. Congress (the House and Senate).

California gets the most electors – 54 – while some sparsely populated states like Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota (and Washington DC) get only three.

The total number of voters is 538.

Each elector represents one electoral vote and the candidate must obtain – 270 votes or more – to win the presidency.

Typically, states award all electoral college votes to the candidate who wins the votes of ordinary voters for the state.

For example, if a candidate wins 50.1% of the vote for Texas, it will award them the state’s 40 electoral votes. In-form candidates always use a landslide victory and always get the same number of electoral votes.

It is therefore possible for a candidate to become president by winning a number of close races in certain states, even if they receive fewer votes in the states.

Small states are important to candidates

The candidate does not need to travel throughout the country

it is easier to say that officials can isolate the problem to one state

Many voters feel like votes don’t count

Too much power is in the hands of swing states (see below)

The winner of the popular vote broke away from the election (more on that later)

Risk of false voters (we will also come back to this later)

Most states consistently vote for the same party in every election.

This is why most presidential candidates target specific “swing states” by voting one way or the other rather than trying to convince voters across the country.

For 2024, the top battleground states are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Yes. In fact, in two of the last six elections, candidates who received fewer votes from the general public went on to win.

For 2016, Donald Trump is almost three million votes behind Hilary Clinton. In 2000, George W. Bush defeated Democratic candidate Al Gore and won the popular vote by more than half a million votes.

Only three ODA presidents have not been elected without winning the popular vote, all for the 19th century.

When drafting the US Constitution of 1787, national popular votes to elect a president were virtually impossible (variable size and delicate communications).

So some of the members of the Constitution create an electoral college, where each state chooses the electors.

This system favors small states because it gives them more votes and national popular votes to decide who will be president.

The electoral college also favors southern states where slaves outnumber the population. Even though slaves did not have the right to vote, they counted them in the U.S. census (as three-fifths of a person).

Since the number of electoral votes is determined by the size of a state’s population, Southern states have more influence in electing the president than in direct public voting.

For some states, voters can vote for who they prefer, regardless of the voters’ choice. But in practice, voters almost always vote for the candidate who wins the most votes in each state.

If voters vote against the state’s chosen candidate, they label them “infidels.” In 2016, they voted seven times in the Electoral College, but faithless electors never changed the results.

In some states, “faithless” voters risk being fined or even prosecuted for voting or abstaining.

In 2020, American voters became familiar with the concept of “fake voters” after Trump supporters among Republicans in seven US states created their own electors to use to overturn election results.

In some cases, they create and sign official-looking documents or arrive at state capitals on December 14 – when di kontri voters gather to officially vote.

Some of the di pipo involved are facing charges and the investigation is still ongoing.

If no majority winner emerges, the House of Representatives, the lower house of American lawmakers, will vote to elect the president.

This has only happened once for 1824. Four candidates split the electoral votes, denying them victory.

Since there are two parties that dominate the American system, this is unlikely to happen.