How many total electoral votes are there and what is the minimum number needed to win?

How many total electoral votes are there and what is the minimum number needed to win?

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.

How many electoral votes does each person need to win?

A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half of all electors—to win the presidential election. In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote. But the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when the electors meet in their states.

What happens if neither get 270?

A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the presidency or the vice presidency. Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the Speaker of the House would become acting president until either the House selects a president or the Senate selects a vice president.

How many electoral votes exist in the United states?

There are currently 538 electors in the Electoral College; 270 votes are needed to win the presidential election. Several weeks after the general election, electors from each state meet in their state capitals and cast their official vote for president and vice president.

Do you get all the electoral votes in a state?

In 48 of the 50 states, state laws mandate the winner of the plurality of its statewide popular vote shall receive all of that state’s electors; in Maine and Nebraska, two electors are assigned in this manner, while the remaining electors are allocated based on the plurality of votes in each of their congressional …

What happens if no one wins the electoral vote?

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. The Senate elects the Vice President from the two vice presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.

What is Amendment 12 simplified?

The Twelfth Amendment stipulates that each elector must cast distinct votes for president and vice president, instead of two votes for president. The Twelfth Amendment requires a person to receive a majority of the electoral votes for vice president for that person to be elected vice president by the Electoral College.

How many electors are there in the Electoral College?

When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called electors. The number of electors each state gets is equal to its total number of Senators and Representatives in Congress. A total of 538 electors form the Electoral College. Each elector casts one vote following the general election.

How are the electoral votes for each state determined?

The electoral votes are deteremined based on the 2010 US Census. The number of electoral votes for each state is equal to the sum of its number of Senators and its number of Representatives.

How many electoral votes do you need to win the presidency?

(The District of Columbia was awarded three electoral votes with the passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961.) The total number of electors, then, adds up to 538 total votes. To win the presidency, a candidate needs more than 50 percent of the electoral votes. Half of 538 is 269.

Is the number of electoral votes fixed at 538?

Though the number of electoral votes is fixed at 538, there are circumstances that can arise requiring special attention.