Q&A on the News

Q: What is the Electoral College and how does it supersede the popular vote? —Ursula Cox, Canton

A: A group of people called electors, who are from each state and the District of Columbia, make up the Electoral College, which is a “process, not a place,” archives.gov states.

When people vote in a presidential election, they actually vote for their state’s electors, not the candidates.

The electors are nominated by state legislatures, and the legislatures usually defer to parties. For example, a Republican state party committee nominates Republican electors in Georgia.

The party that wins the majority of a state’s votes wins all of the state’s electors (except in Maine and Nebraska, which divide their electors by giving two votes to the statewide winner, and one vote to the popular vote winner in each congressional district).

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, won 51.1 percent of Georgia’s votes, so all 16 of Georgia’s electors are Republican. All 16 would have been Democrats if Hillary Clinton had won Georgia’s popular vote.

Trump won 306 of the country’s 538 electoral votes, which reflects the states’ 100 senators and 435 congressmen, plus the three electors allocated to the District of Columbia.

A candidate must earn 270 votes to win.

The electors in each state will meet Dec. 19 to cast their votes. They are expected to vote in accordance with their state’s popular vote, but the Constitution doesn’t mandate that they do so.

The Electoral College was created by the Constitution as a “compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens,” archives.gov states.

EVELYN HOCKSTEIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST The Electoral College is not a physical space unto itself, but it is administered by this Washington agency, the Office of the Federal Register, north of Capitol Hill.