AMERICA’S presidential election on November 8th shone a light on a quirk of its electoral system: the use of the electoral college rather than the popular vote to decide the winner.

Share on Facebook. Discussions around the Electoral College and a popular vote have promising arguments on each side. To create your own forecast for the 2020 election, click on the states in the map to toggle them between Democrat, Republican and Tossup and watch the electoral map tallies change. Should none of the candidates win 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment mandates the election be decided by the House of Representatives .

Senators as well as for each member of the U.S. State of Representatives.

Share on Google Plus. Share Tweet Email. Half of 538 is 269, so a candidate must receive 270 electoral votes to win. Because Electoral College representation is based on congressional representation, states with larger populations get more Electoral College votes. Illustrations by Cristina Rivero. Candidates must receive more than half of the total votes to win an election. Except for Maine and Nebraska, the Electoral College is a "winner take all" system. All electors vote for the winner of their state's popular vote, no matter how narrow their margin of victory.

For now, the Electoral College is here to stay but the power of the states is on the rise. Copy and paste the text below, or send it in a new email message: The graph above shows the electoral vote score for every day, counting, say, 46% to 45% as a win for the candidate with 46%, even though this is really a statistical tie.

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While the Electoral College provides that U.S. citizens could participate by voting, it also gave protection to the rights of the smaller and less populous states by giving each state one Elector for each of the two U.S. How the electoral college works Published Nov. 5, 2016.

Electoral College 2012 Including States Where the Candidates are Statistically Tied. Share via Email.

For more on these, check out our brief review of the electoral college forecasts.. Make Your Own Electoral Forecast.

The Electoral College is a body of electors established by the United States Constitution, which forms every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the United States.The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, and an absolute majority of at least 270 electoral votes is required to win the election.