Presidents of the United States are elected 
through a governmental structure created by 
the Founding Fathers called the Electoral 
College.  Despite its great importance, 
however, many Americans do not understand 
the Electoral College and how it works. 
Rather than becoming president by winning the 
highest number of popular votes, candidates 
must win a majority of the Electoral College.  
Each state is apportioned a certain number of 
votes, and those votes are then given to the 
candidate who wins that particular state.  
Instead of nation-wide vote totals, the president 
is elected on a state by state basis.  The 
number of electoral votes held by individual 
states is determined by the number of elected 
representatives each state has in Congress.  
Since every state has two senators, every state 
gets two corresponding votes.  Added to that 
basic number of two, each state then receives 
the number of votes equivalent to their number 
of congressmen in the House of 
Representatives.  Since the number of 
congressmen varies according to a state’s 
population, larger states have more electoral 
votes.  As shown on this map, North Carolina 
has fifteen electoral votes: 2 votes for their two 
senators, and 13 votes for their thirteen 
congressmen.  California, being the most 
populous state, has 55 electoral votes.  Alaska, 
having a small population, has only three.  The 
electoral votes in each state are cast by actual 
people called “electors.”  Political parties with 
eligible candidates in the state will each 
nominate a list of electors.  In North Carolina, 
for example, the Republicans and Democrats 
will both put forth a list of electors they have 
chosen.  When you vote for a president, you 
are actually voting for a particular group of 
electors.  The candidate’s name is used merely 
for the sake of simplicity.  If you vote for the 
Republican candidate, you are really voting for 
the Republican list of electors.  If you vote for 
the Democratic candidate, you are actually 
voting for the Democrat electors.  29 states and 
the District of Columbia legally require the 
electors to vote for whichever candidate had 
the most votes in their state.  North Carolina is 
one of those states.  However, since 
Democrats and Republicans only nominate 
someone to be an elector who is very loyal to 
their party, rarely have electors not voted for 
the winner of the state’s popular vote.  Those 
who do not vote for the winner of their state are 
called “faithless electors.”  One was in North 
Carolina in 1968.  Instead of casting his 
electoral vote for the winner, Richard Nixon, he 
cast his vote for the segregationist, George 
Wallace.  A faithless elector has never altered 
the outcome of a presidential election.  As 
stipulated by the Constitution, the schedule for 
electing a president goes like this: Election Day 
occurs on the first Tuesday following the first 
Monday in November.  This is when citizens 
determine which list of electors will cast ballots 
in their state.  Those electors then meet in the 
state capital on the Monday after the second 
Wednesday in December.  At that meeting, the 
electors cast their votes for who will be the next 
president.  A joint session of Congress then 
meets on January 6 to ratify the results of the 
Electoral College voting.  The new president is 
then sworn into office on January 20, which is 
when the new president officially begins his or 
her term.  In order to win, a presidential 
candidate must win a majority of the Electoral 
College votes.  This can mean that the 
candidate who won the most popular votes 
doesn’t win the election.  In American history, 
this has occurred five times.  John Quincy 
Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin 
Harrison, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump 
all won the presidency while losing the popular 
vote.  It is also possible for Electoral College 
voting to end in a tie, which has happened 
three times.  In the event of a tie, the next 
president is chosen by a vote in the House of 
Representatives, and the vice-president is 
chosen by the Senate.  In this vote, each state 
gets one vote, regardless of the size of the 
state.  A tie has occurred three times in 
American history, and the new president was 
chosen by Congress.  In 1800, Thomas 
Jefferson won over Aaron Burr.  In 1824, 
Andrew Jackson lost to John Quincy Adams.  
And, in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won over 
Samuel Tilden.  In addition to determining how 
a new president is chosen, the Electoral 
College also has an enormous influence on the 
strategies used in presidential campaigns.  
Candidates must plan how to win states, not 
just the most overall votes.  Some states, for 
example, are seen as nearly guaranteed wins 
for a particular party.  Republicans can 
generally count on winning Texas, Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Louisiana.  Democrats can 
generally count on winning New York, 
California, Oregon and Massachusetts.  As a 
result, candidates from both parties will do little 
campaigning in those states, since it is seen as 
a waste of time and money.  In this slide, the 
states pictured in red voted for the Republican 
presidential candidate in each of the last four 
elections.  The states in blue voted for the 
Democratic candidate in the last four elections.  
The states in other colors went back and forth, 
and are known as “swing” states.  Presidential 
elections are generally won by whichever 
candidate wins the most swing states.  This 
includes North Carolina, which voted for 
President Obama in 2008, but for Mitt Romney 
in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016.  No 
Republican has ever won the presidency 
without winning Ohio.  And George W. Bush 
won the presidency because he won Florida.  
There is also a pre-set strategy for how to win 
swing states.  As of 2020, about 25% of 
Americans are registered as Republicans, 31% 
as Democrats, and 40% as independent.  Each 
candidate must motivate as many of their own 
voters or “base” to actually vote as they 
possibly can.  If they do, then the election in 
swing states will be determined by who wins 
the most independent or “swing” voters.  If a 
candidate fails to rally their base, and less of 
them vote, then he or she will have little chance 
of winning in swing states, and so little chance 
of winning the election.  Hilary Clinton had this 
problem.  Many Democrats were not enthused 
about voting for her.  As a result, in some 
states, fewer Democrats showed up to vote, 
which became a major reason she lost the 
election.  In contrast to registered Republicans 
or Democrats, independent or swing voters 
tend to be middle-of-the-road and do not like 
views on either extreme.  For this reason, 
candidates will try to look moderate, especially 
in swing states, without losing their base, who 
are less moderate.  This is the tricky part of 
getting elected president.  How do you 
motivate the very liberal, as a Democrat, and 
the very conservative, as a Republican, and 
still look attractive to moderate swing voters?  
Whoever does that most successfully is most 
likely to win the election.  This is how 
Americans elect a president.  Your vote does 
matter, because your vote helps to determine 
who wins in North Carolina, one of the swing 
states, and so gets all of our state’s fifteen 
electoral votes.  So always be sure to vote.
