The National Popular Vote and the Electoral College are two different ways to choose who becomes president, like choosing a class favorite by either raising hands or counting all votes.
Imagine your classroom has 30 kids. If you pick the class favorite by raising hands, that’s like the National Popular Vote: everyone in the whole country gets to vote, and whoever gets the most votes wins, just like the kid with the most raised hands becomes the class favorite.
But if you use the Electoral College, it’s more like giving each group of kids a small team. Each state has its own team, and the person who wins the most votes in that state gets all the points from that team. If you add up all those points, whoever has the most becomes president, kind of like a game where teams earn points for winning in their area.
Sometimes, the person with the most total points (the Electoral College winner) isn’t the one who got the most individual votes (National Popular Vote winner). It’s like when the class favorite gets more raised hands, but the team with the most points wins the prize.
Examples
- A state with more people gets more electoral votes.
- If everyone voted for one person, that person would win the presidency.
- Some states decide the election even if they don’t have the most votes.
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See also
- How Does Gerrymandering Explained... With Pizza! Work?
- How did the Electoral College system evolve?
- How Does History of the Electoral College | Simple Civics Work?
- How Does The Mathematically Superior Voting System Work?
- How does Single Transferable Vote work?