Daily Mail, October 2024
When the Founding Fathers argued about how the newly-formed United States would elect a president, they compromised on a unique system that became known as the Electoral College. It requires a candidate to reach 270 out of 538 total electoral votes. How that math plays out has changed election by election, candidate by candidate.
For the 2024 contest polling shows that most of the 538 votes are already sewn up by Donald Trump or Kamala Harris – but 93 are still up for grabs in seven battleground states. Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress – those in the House and the Senate. There are currently 538 electors in all, including three for Washington D.C., which is represented despite not being a state.
