After the nominees for the two major political parties are chosen, candidates spend a lot of time campaigning and trying to win over voters. They go to rallies, participate in debates, and explain their plans for the country. On Election Day, people go to the polls and vote for whomever they think will be best President. The candidate with a majority of the electoral votes becomes President and the Vice President is chosen through a separate process.
The system helps to keep large states from dominating the election by requiring candidates to appeal to voters in all parts of the country, which gives smaller states a more significant role in shaping national policy. It also means that a candidate can still become President even if they don’t have a large plurality of the national popular vote, which has happened several times in American history (most recently in 2000 and 2016).
Each state gets a certain number of electors based on its representation in Congress. Then, each state’s electoral votes are counted after the general election. After the tally is complete, the presidential and vice presidential candidates are announced on the night of the election. The Electoral College votes are then sent to Washington, DC for counting. There, the 538 electoral votes are tallied. A candidate must have a minimum of 270 electoral votes to become President. A State’s Certificate of Vote is then prepared and sent to NARA as part of the official records of the Presidential election.
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