Electoral College system: Why your vote might not work as you think

The Electoral College system which was made about 200-years ago still affects modern US elections in weird ways. Donald Trump got to be president in 2016 even though Hillary Clinton got more peoples votes (its happened 4 other times in history)

The whole thing started at the Philadelphia meeting in late 1700s: smart-guys back then didnt trust regular people to pick a president directly — so they made this middle-man system. Since then about 700 tryʼs to change it failed including Alexander Hamiltonʼs attempt just 15 years after they made it

Hereʼs how the numbers work now:
* Each state gets electors based on its size
* Total count is 538 so winning needs 270
* Texas got 2 more spots after last count
* Seven states lost one spot each (like NY and California)

The process is pretty straight-forward: party-picked electors meet up in december to vote‚ then send results to DC. Usually its just boring stuff but everything changed on jan-6 2021 when Mike Pence had to count votes while protesters tried stopping him

The system means some votes count more than others — like when Clinton got 2.1% more total votes than Trump but lost anyway. States pick their electors different ways: some winner-takes-all others split em up. Each state sends these party-loyal people (to avoid any last-minute change-of-heart problems) to make the final pick

The Electoral College was meant to be a compromise between congress picking the president and letting the people decide directly