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The margin of victory in a presidential election is the difference between the number of Electoral College votes garnered by the candidate with an absolute majority of electoral votes (since 1964, it has been 270 out of 538) and the number received by the second place candidate (currently in the range of 2 to 538, a margin of one vote is only possible with an odd total number of electors or a ...
Many states require an elector to vote for the candidate to which the elector is pledged, but some "faithless electors" have voted for other candidates or refrained from voting. A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the
The Electoral College's electors then formally elect the president and vice president. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1804) provides the procedure by which the president and vice president are elected; electors vote separately for each office.
These are the Electoral College votes a candidate needs to win the presidency. The system has been around since the first election when George Washington carried all 69 electoral votes.
The victor is the first to win a majority of electors, the so-called magic number of 270. ... plus a fluctuating number of electoral votes based on how many congressional representatives a state has.
The candidate that wins 270 electoral votes or more becomes president. Those votes are officially tallied by Congress on Jan. 6 and the president is sworn in on Jan. 20.
Furthermore, a candidate can win the electoral vote without securing the greatest amount of the national popular vote, such as during the 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 elections. It would even be possible in theory to secure the necessary 270 electoral votes from only the twelve most populous states [a] and ignore the rest of the country.
On Jan. 6, Congress meets to count the electoral votes and certify victory for the candidate who has received at least 270. If no presidential candidate gets 270 votes, then Congress will elect ...