How does the US electoral college system function?

The US presidential election system produces some strange results. In 2000, George W Bush won despite polling half a million fewer votes than Al Gore.

- JOHN RENTOUL

In 2016, Donald Trump won with 63 million votes against Hillary Clinton with 66 million.

The system is a hangover from 18th-century delegate democracy and also, crucially, from the origin of the US as a federation of states that jealously guarded their rights. Because states’ rights are involved – particularly the right of smaller states to greater representation – the system is unlikely ever to be changed.

What is the electoral college?

US presidents are chosen by an electoral college, which in the old days was an actual meeting of delegates from each state. So when Americans vote in presidential elections, they are not voting for their candidates, but to instruct an elector to vote for their candidates for president and vice-president.

Each state has the same number of electors as they have members of Congress: that is, two senators and a number of members of the House of Representatives allocated according to population (as recorded in the 2020 census).