Electoral Votes
The candidate that gets the most votes in each state gets all the electoral votes for that state. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes. The more people that live in your state-the more electoral votes your state gets. (Can you see why candidates would spend a lot of time in California, New York and Texas?) The first candidate to win 270 electoral votes becomes the President!
The Electoral College
When a person casts a vote in the general election, they are actually voting for a group of people, known as electors.
Electors are part of the Electoral College and vote for their state's preferred candidate. Electoral College members are people who are appointed by each state's political parties to vote for the President and Vice President.
In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors, based on its population. Each elector gets one electoral vote.
The Presidential election is decided by the combined results of 51 State elections (in this context, the term "State" includes DC).
The candidate who wins the popular vote in a state on election day also wins that state's electoral votes. It takes a majority, at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes, to win.