The American president is technically chosen by an electoral college made up of ‘electors’ from the governments of the fifty United States.

It is an indirect and relatively complex way of choosing a national leader – but one based on constitutional principles that date back to the country’s birth.

How does the Electoral College work?
Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of people it has representing it in the Houses of Congress: the total of its senators – always two per state – and its representatives (politicians in the lower congressional house, the House of Representatives) – a number determined by the population of the state.

The electors are chosen by the political parties before the election, often in a vote at a national convention. The electors then meet in state capitals after the November election and cast votes for a president and vice-president based on the people’s choices.

Because the states with the highest population have more electors, they become the most important states for any aspiring president to win. California, for example, carries 55 elector votes and Washington DC only three.

It is therefore critical to win the larger states like California, Texas, Florida and New York. And in betting terms, the opinion polls and Primary election results in those larger states are more worthwhile pointers towards the overall election result.

Discrepancies of the Electoral College system
Under the Electoral College system, it is possible for a losing presidential candidate to win a majority of states and lose the election, and possible for a candidate with a lower percentage of the popular vote to win the White House.

In 2000, for example, Al Gore won 48.38 per cent of votes nationwide compared to George Bush’s 47.87 per cent – but Bush became president because he won 271 Electoral College votes compared to Gore’s 266.

It is also possible to see an electoral map coloured mostly blue with a just a few red patches, but for the red to carry the election – because they’ve won the highly populous key states that represent most of the Electoral College votes.

The Electoral College and the US Constitution
This indirect system of electing the executive arm of the US government is enshrined in federal law, although the words “electoral college” do not actually appear in the US constitution.

When deciding their political system after gaining independence from Britain, the “Founding Fathers” of the USA decided that the American people should elect their government’s legislative bodies (the Senate and the House of Representatives), but that the states should elect the president and vice-president.