There are just below two months left till the United States presidential election: On November 5 (as established by regulation and custom, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November) the residents of the 50 states should select between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to occupy the Oval Office of the White House.
The key to understanding these decisive elections lies in the ins and outs of their advanced electoral system: a system of oblique election during which a single vote can determine a presidencyeven when the candidate with the fewest votes wins.
Citizens vote for an Electoral College answerable for appointing a president
The very first thing to take into account is that Americans don’t elect the president straight, however fairly delegates that may type, after the elections, a Electoral school (in the type of seats in Spain).
Each state in the nation has a variety of electors (equal to the sum of its congressmen and senators) that voters appoint to elect the president. The Electoral College is made up of 538 voters, so the candidate who manages to add 270 electoral votes wins the presidency.
How a lot is each State price?
The variety of electoral delegates of each State, which is equal to the sum of its congressmen and senators of stated State, It is established primarily based on the inhabitants census of each territoryall the time including a complete of 538 delegates:
- California: 54
- Texas: 40
- New York: 28
- Florida: 30
- Pennsylvania: 19
- Illinois: 19
- Ohio: 17
- Georgia: 16
- Michigan: 16
- North Carolina: 16
- New Jersey: 14
- Virginia: 13
- Washington: 12
- Arizona: 11
- Tennessee: 11
- Indiana: 11
- Massachusetts: 11
- Minnesota: 10
- Missouri: 10
- Wisconsin: 10
- Maryland: 10
- Alabama: 9
- South Carolina: 9
- Colorado: 9
- Kentucky: 8
- Louisiana: 8
- Connecticut: 7
- Oklahoma: 7
- Oregon: 7
- Mississippi: 6
- Arkansas: 6
- Snowfall: 6
- Utah: 6
- Iowa: 6
- Kansas: 6
- Nebraska: 5
- New Mexico: 5
- W.V.: 5
- New Hampshire: 4
- Hawaii: 4
- Rhode Island: 4
- Idaho: 4
- Maine: 4
- Alaska:3
- Mountain:3
- Delaware:3
- North Dakota:3
- South Dakota:3
- Vermont:3
- Wyoming:3
- D.C.:3
The winner-takes-all rule: one vote can determine a whole state
And how are these delegates assigned? That is the nice peculiarity of American elections: not like in Spain (the place there is a proportional system), In the US a majority system is usedgenerally known as winner-takes-all (“winner takes all”).
What does this imply? That the candidate who wins the vote in a state, even when it is by a single vote, takes all the electoral delegates of that State. That is, if Harris beats Trump by a single vote in California, she takes the 55 electoral delegates from that State.
This system seeks, in idea, steadiness the affect of all states in the election of the subsequent president. On the different hand, the system permits conditions during which the candidate with the most votes fails to win the presidency by not having sufficient delegates in the Electoral College.
For instance, in 2016, Hillary Clinton obtained 3 million extra votes than Donald Trump, however the magnate gained 304 electoral delegates in contrast to the Democrat’s 227: Trump managed to win extra States though Clinton gained these with extra seats in the Electoral College.
Two states and Washington DC, the solely exception
There are solely two States during which this majority system doesn’t exist: Nebraska and Maineduring which the delegates are distributed proportionally. It is additionally an exception D.C.: Although it is not a State itself, the American capital has 3 electoral votes, as established in the United States Constitution.
