The history of the Electoral College and its role in the Trump-Harris 2024 presidential election

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spent months traveling the country as part of their 2024 presidential campaign, fighting for America's votes to win the White House.

With each new presidential election cycle, U.S. citizens ask themselves the same question, considering the power of the Electoral College: “Does my vote count?”

Local and state officials elected to office in the United States can do so by winning the popular vote. However, the President of the United States is selected using the Electoral College and the popular vote.

To win the White House, a candidate must receive at least 270 electoral votes. (Soeren Stache/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

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Most commonly, the popular vote and the electoral vote reflect each other, but there are few cases in history where the two differed. Most recently, in 2016, Trump won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is the formal process by which the President and Vice President of the United States are elected to office.

“The Electoral College as we know it was created by the 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804. “Today there are 538 total electoral votes, and a candidate needs at least 270 to win,” Fox News' Todd Piro explained on “Fox and Friends” in November 2020.

In the Electoral College, Washington DC has its own three electors.

According to USA.gov, in 48 states plus Washington DC, the winner of the popular vote receives all the electoral votes for that state. This is true with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, where a proportional system is used, according to the source.

In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president after winning the election but losing the popular vote to his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

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How does the electoral college work?

While the referendum takes place in November, the election does not take place until about a month later, in mid-December.

Who is selected as a state's electors, how and when they are chosen varies from state to state, but according to the National Archives website, there is a two-part system.

Voter rolls are selected at state party conventions or voted on by the party central committee based on state or national party rules.

During a general election, voters in all states cast their votes to select their electors who will represent their decision in the presidential election. Voters' names may or may not appear on the ballots.

Voters undertake to vote for specific candidates, but are not legally required to do so. While there is no federal law that allows voters to vote in a specific way, there are penalties such as exclusion from future elections.

Over the years, there have been repeated calls to change the Electoral College as we know it.

Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee after Joe Biden dropped out of the race. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

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“There have been hundreds of proposed amendments to change the Electoral College over the years, but only one came close to passage after Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election,” Piro said. “A 1969 bill that would replace the Electoral College with the popular vote passed the House of Representatives, and although it was approved by Nixon, the bill ultimately failed in the Senate after it was defeated, and it still stands today.”

Recently, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the complete abolition of the Electoral College.

“I think we all know the Electoral College has to go,” he said at a fundraiser in California in October, according to a pool report on the event, according to Bloomberg. “We need a national referendum, but that’s not the world we live in.”

To abolish the system created by the Founding Fathers, a comprehensive constitutional amendment would have to be made.