The Electoral College was a mechanism designed by the founding fathers to create a layer of bureaucracy between the people and the Presidency.
How does it work?
Each state gets a certain number of “electors” – (essentially votes) – which is proportional to the size and population of the state.
The majority of states award their electoral votes on a winner take all basis.
So if most people vote Democrat in Florida, the Democrats get their 29 electoral votes.
There are a total of 538 electoral votes spread across the states, and a candidate needs a majority of 270 of them to win.
If they get less than a majority, Congress gets to pick.
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Has anyone ever won the popular vote and lost the election?
Yes, in the 2000 election, where Al Gore won the popular vote by about half a million votes, but still lost out to George W Bush when the courts decided he had won Florida.
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How many votes does each state get?
| Alabama | 9 | Montana | 3 |
| Alaska | 3 | Nebraska | 5 |
| Arizona | 11 | Nevada | 6 |
| Arkansas | 6 | New Hampshire | 4 |
| California | 55 | New Jersey | 14 |
| Colorado | 9 | New Mexico | 5 |
| Connecticut | 7 | New York | 29 |
| Delaware | 3 | North Carolina | 15 |
| Florida | 29 | North Dakota | 3 |
| Georgia | 16 | Ohio | 18 |
| Hawaii | 4 | Oklahoma | 7 |
| Idaho | 4 | Oregon | 7 |
| Illinois | 20 | Pennsylvania | 20 |
| Indiana | 11 | Rhode Island | 4 |
| Iowa | 6 | South Carolina | 9 |
| Kansas | 6 | South Dakota | 3 |
| Kentucky | 8 | Tennessee | 11 |
| Louisiana | 8 | Texas | 38 |
| Maine | 4 | Utah | 6 |
| Maryland | 10 | Vermont | 3 |
| Massachusetts | 11 | Virginia | 13 |
| Michigan | 16 | Washington | 12 |
| Minnesota | 10 | West Virginia | 5 |
| Mississippi | 6 | Wisconsin | 10 |
| Missouri | 10 | Wyoming | 3 |
