How does the Electoral College work?

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Americans from all sides of the political spectrum label the process through which citizens choose the president as quirky, arcane and even possibly obsolete. Demystifying the process is an important step in making informed decisions about your vote.

First things first: The Electoral College is not really a college. It is a group of electors, called a slate, who are picked by state parties.

Each state gets electoral votes based on how many Senators and Representatives it has in Congress. This means that every state has at least three electoral votes (2 automatic senators, 1 district) and one additional vote is credited for each Congressional district after that.

There are 538 officials in Congress, 100 Senators and 435 Representatives. Due to the 23rd Amendment, Washington D.C. has three electoral votes despite lacking statehood. The capital city has what are sometimes called “shadow senators” and a “shadow representative,” who are elected officials with non-voting seats in Congress.

The allocations of electoral votes are based on the census. They are effective for a 10-year period, usually affecting two or three election cycles.

Your state is in charge of counting your vote for president and vice president. Whichever candidate receives the most votes wins the state’s full number of electoral votes.

Nebraska and Maine, however, use a slightly different system in which two electors are selected based on statewide popular votes and the rest are selected based on the popular vote of each individual district.

Since the full count of electoral votes is 538, a candidate needs 270 votes to win. Many states consistently award their electoral votes to one party’s candidate, so on election day most media focus on the handful of states that are polling closely between the two major candidates.