With almost all of the current Central Catholic students being able to vote in the 2028 election and even some seniors being able to vote in the 2024 election in exactly 3 weeks, it’s imperative for people to know how the electoral college works. Obviously the elections aren’t based on popular vote overall, as Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016, but Trump won the presidency. How did he win?

WHAT IS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE?

The Electoral College is the system in which the amount of votes a candidate gets only matters in their state, and whichever candidate gets the most votes per state earns all the votes except for 2 states, Maine and Nebraska, where certain districts get one electoral vote. That said, Nebraska is pushing to become a winner-take-all state to get an extra red electoral vote. Maine is trying to do the same to combat this, but they may be too late. According to the Nebraska Examiner, Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina is working hard make Nebraska and Maine winner-take-all states.

WHAT IS THE POPULAR VOTE?

The popular vote is “the vote  for a U.S. presidential candidate made by the qualified voters, as opposed to that made by the Electoral College.” This means that the number of total votes a candidate gets, regardless of the state the voter lives in, is the popular vote. In 2016, even though Clinton won 3 million more votes than Trump, as stated earlier, he won. This is because votes  beyond those that were needed were won in states that were easily going blue, like California, which Clinton overwhelmingly won,  according to Damon Linker, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, and writer of “Notes from the Middleground.”

WHAT ARE BATTLEGROUND STATES?

Battleground states, also known as swing states, are states that both candidates have a similar chance to win. This election, the swing states will be Nevada, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Safe States vs. Swing States, 270towin.com

These seven swing states in gray are too close to call, according to the nearly weekly polls and analysis by fivethirtyeight.com, so this race is anyone’s to win! Because of the Electoral College system, whoever wins 270 electoral votes regardless of the popular vote tally wins the election. This election will likely be closer than any since the year 2000, where Bush secured the presidency with the required  270 electoral votes and one vote to spare while Gore won the popular vote by over 500,000 votes.