Race to 270: The US Presidential Election Explained
On November 5, the world will be watching the US presidential election.
However, it may not be so easy to understand exactly how that election works.
To become US president, it's not just a matter of getting more votes across the country — or winning the "popular vote," as it's called. It's a little more complicated.
There are two main candidates for 2024: Kamala Harris from the Democratic Party, and Donald Trump for the Republican Party.
US citizens will vote for their preferred candidate in all 50 states. In nearly every state, the person with the most votes in that state will "win" the whole state.
But citizens don't actually vote directly for president. Instead, each state has a number of "electoral college" votes.
The electoral college is made up of 538 people called "electors." And these electors are the ones who actually come together to decide the president.
A state's electors are generally expected to vote for the candidate with the most votes in their state. Very rarely, so-called "faithless electors" choose to vote for someone else — though they may be punished for this.
The number of electors in each state is based mostly on the population. The state with the largest population — California — has 54 electors, while states with very small populations — like Wyoming — have as few as three.
To become president, a candidate must get at least 270 of the 538 electoral college votes.
Some states almost always vote for the blue of the Democrats or the red of the Republicans, and are known as "blue states" — like Vermont — or "red states," like Oklahoma.
Since these states' votes are largely decided, candidates often focus on so-called "swing states," which might be won by either party.
The 2024 election could be decided by swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia — since nobody knows which candidate will win these states and get their electoral college votes.
