How the American President is elected

The Americans don’t directly elect their President. On November 8, they will vote for a presidential candidate. The one who wins the majority of this popular vote in a state wins that state’s electors. The electors are the ones who go on to directly elect the president.
Here’s how it works:
Electors make up the Electoral College:
A 538-member body that directly elects the president & VP every four years.Electors are apportioned to each of the 50 states and to the District of Columbia.
Who is an elector?
*Electors are party members who directly elect the president
*No senator or representative, or person holding an office/trust of profit in the US can be appointed an elector.
*Each party chooses its own set of electors for each state. So, in Illinois for instance, Democrats have 20 electors, the GOP 20, & so on.
How is an elector chosen?
*Each party in each state chooses lists of potential electors before the election.
*Process of choosing each state’s electors varies. For the bigger parties, GOP & the Democrats, the electors are either nominated in their state party conventions or by central party committee vote.

HOW IT WORKS:
*In each state, whichever candidate wins the majority popular vote, wins all of that state’s electors in a winner-takes-all approach.
*The nominee who has more than half of the total of 538 electors on his side wins.
*Once the popular vote is over, it is clear how many electors each presidential nominee has on his/ her side.
POPULAR VS ELECTORAL VOTE:
*Nationwide total votes cast for candidates is the popular vote
*Since this doesn’t directly decide the outcome of a presidential election, and it is the electoral college that determines the winner, it is possible for a candidate to win more popular votes and still lose the election
*For example, all 55 electoral votes in California will go to the candidate who wins the state even if the margin is very small. The other candidate may win
smaller states with huge margins, but losing California will cost him/her 55 electoral votes. Hence the final winner may have got fewer popular votes.

IF NO CLEAR WINNER:
If no candidate gets a majority, the House of Representatives votes to elect the President (from the top three candidates). The Senate chooses the Vice President (from the top two candidates).