Electoral College (United States)
Electoral votes by state/federal district, for
the elections of 2004 and 2008
Electoral College map showing the results of
the 2008 US presidential election. Senator
Barack Obama (D-IL) won the popular vote in
28 states and the District of Columbia (de-
noted in blue) to capture 365 electoral votes.
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) won the popular
vote in 22 states (denoted in red) to capture
173 electoral votes. Nebraska split its elect-
oral vote when Senator Obama won Neb-
raska’s 2CD electoral vote; the state’s other
four electoral votes went to McCain.
The Electoral College consists of the pop-
ularly elected representatives (electors) who
formally elect the President and Vice Presid-
ent of the United States. Since 1964, there
have been 538 electors in each presidential
election.[1] Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of
the Constitution specifies how many electors
each state is entitled to have and that each
state’s legislature decides how its electors
are to be chosen; U.S. territories are not rep-
resented in the Electoral College. The Elect-
oral College is an example of an indirect
election.
Cartogram representation of the Electoral
College vote for the 2008 election, with each
square representing one electoral vote.
Rather than directly voting for the Presid-
ent and Vice President, United States citizens
vote for electors. Electors are technically free
to vote for anyone eligible to be President,
but in practice pledge to vote for specific
candidates[2] and voters cast ballots for
favored presidential and vice presidential
candidates by voting for correspondingly
pledged electors.[3]
The Twelfth Amendment provides for each
elector to cast one vote for President and one
vote for Vice President. It also specifies how
a President and Vice President are elected.
Critics argue the Electoral College is in-
herently undemocratic and gives certain
swing states disproportionate clout in select-
ing the President and Vice President. Pro-
ponents argue that the Electoral College is
an im