WASHINGTON - Few Americans have actually voted for a presidential candidate.
They have instead chosen representatives to the Electoral College, a system in which presidential candidates compete for electors on 51 separate ballots, one for each state and the District of Columbia.
In Ohio, for example, voters choose a slate of 21
electors, all of whom have pledged to support the presidential candidate of their party.
This state-by-state competition was created in hopes that such a decentralised system would prevent "cabal, intrigue and corruption" - as Alexander Hamilton wrote when the United States Constitution was adopted more than 200 years ago - while rewarding candidates who had acquired strong and broad-based support.
Each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to how many senators and representatives it sends to Congress. In this way, the Constitution recognised vagaries in population, while guaranteeing a voice to small states.
So in this election, tiny Vermont has the minimum three votes, while high-population California has 54.
After today's voting, 538 electors will have been selected to then meet in their respective state capitals on December 18.
The results of their balloting for President and Vice-President will go to Congress, which will tally the votes on January 6. Whichever candidate has secured 270 votes, a majority, will be inaugurated two weeks later, at noon on January 20.
The Constitution left the appointment of electors to the states, though it barred federal officials from service.
It also required that electors vote for presidential and vice-presidential candidates from separate states.
In all but two states, the winner of the popular vote will receive its total allotment of electoral votes. Five out of a combined nine votes in Nebraska and Maine are distributed based on voting in congressional districts, instead of the state as a whole.
Electors are expected to vote in accord with the popular vote, though "faithless electors" have occasionally cast votes for a different candidate.
Though such protests have not influenced any elections, the complexity of the system can result in the election of a candidate who failed to obtain a majority of the popular vote.
Rutherford Hayes was elected President in 1876 despite having trailed Democrat Samuel Tilden in the general election, after Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina transmitted two sets of electoral votes.
Congress eventually validated the slates pledged to Hayes, but passed legislation within a year that delegated the choice of electors to the states and set a high burden for the disqualification of future electors.
In 1888, Republican Benjamin Harrison ran just behind Democratic President Grover Cleveland in the national popular vote, yet won the electoral vote 233 to 168.
If no candidate wins a majority, the selection of President falls to the House of Representatives.
The four-man race of 1824 was one such instance. Andrew Jackson led in the popular and electoral votes, but with the votes divided among John Quincy Adams, William Crawford and Henry Clay, the Tennessean failed to secure a majority in the Electoral College.
On its first ballot, the House elected Adams, son of the second President.
Electoral College votes by state:
Alabama 9
Alaska 3
Arizona 8
Arkansas 6
California 54
Colorado 8
Connecticut 8
Delaware 3
Florida 25
Georgia 13
Hawaii 4
Idaho 4
Illinois 22
Indiana 12
Iowa 7
Kansas 6
Kentucky 8
Louisiana 9
Maine 4
Maryland 10
Massachusetts 12
Michigan 18
Minnesota 10
Mississippi 7
Missouri 11
Montana 3
Nebraska 5
Nevada 4
New Hampshire 4
New Jersey 15
New Mexico 5
New York 33
North Carolina 14
North Dakota 3
Ohio 21
Oklahoma 8
Oregon 7
Pennsylvania 23
Rhode Island 4
South Carolina 8
South Dakota 3
Tennessee 11
Texas 32
Utah 5
Vermont 3
Virginia 13
Washington 11
Washington DC 3
West Virginia 5
Wisconsin 11
Wyoming 3
- REUTERS
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* The Herald Online's coverage of voting in the US presidential election begins at noon today.
WASHINGTON - Few Americans have actually voted for a presidential candidate.
They have instead chosen representatives to the Electoral College, a system in which presidential candidates compete for electors on 51 separate ballots, one for each state and the District of Columbia.
In Ohio, for example, voters choose a slate of 21
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