Despite popular belief, the American public does not directly vote for the President of the United States. Instead, voters from each state cast their votes for "presidential electors" who are representatives for the actual presidential candidates. These "electors" then cast their votes for the presidential candidate that won the majority of popular votes within that state.

The amount of votes a state gets is the sum of its senators and representatives in the House of Representatives. For example, Georgia has 2 senators and 13 representatives which gives the state of Georgia 15 electoral votes to cast. The total amount of electoral votes for all the 50 states plus the District of Columbia equals 538 votes.

In order for a candidate to win the presidency, he or she must receive 270 votes from the electoral college. This equates to 50.18% or more of the electoral college votes. Because of this system, it is possible for a candidate to win the presidency without winning the popular vote.

Here is an alphabetical list of U.S. states and the amount of electoral college votes each state is allowed. Click here for a map displaying votes.

• Alabama - 9
• Alaska - 3
• Arizona - 10
• Arkansas - 6
• California - 55
• Colorado - 9
• Connecticut - 7
• Delaware - 3
• Florida - 27
• Georgia - 15
• Hawaii - 4
• Idaho - 4
• Illinois - 21
• Indiana - 11
• Iowa - 7
• Kansas - 6
• Kentucky - 8
• Louisiana - 9
• Maine - 4
• Maryland - 10
• Massachusetts - 12
• Michigan - 17
• Minnesota - 10
• Mississippi - 6
• Missouri - 11
• Montana - 3
• Nebraska - 5
• Nevada - 5
• New Hampshire - 4
• New Jersey - 15
• New Mexico - 5
• New York - 31
• North Carolina - 15
• North Dakota - 3
• Ohio - 20
• Oklahoma - 7
• Oregon - 7
• Pennsylvania - 21
• Rhode Island - 4
• South Carolina - 8
• South Dakota - 3
• Tennessee - 11
• Texas - 34
• Utah - 5
• Vermont - 3
• Virginia - 13
• Washington - 11
• West Virginia - 5
• Wisconsin - 10
• Wyoming - 3
• District of Columbia - 3

Electoral votes are what count in the race for the presidency. While popular votes matter tremendously on the state level, overall they can be misleading when dealing with the electoral college. This has occurred 4 times in American history.

How might this happen? Well lets say, for arguements sake, that candidate A is in a election against candidate B. Now candidate A only wins the electoral votes from the top 11 states in terms of electoral votes. By winning California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, and New Jersey, candidate A will have amassed enough electoral votes to win the election although candidate B won the other 39 states plus the District of Columbia. Candidate A would be the president while Candidate B would most likely hold the mass majority of the popular vote. While such a landslide in popular votes like this scenario is very unlikely to happen, it is still a possibiliy.

The elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000 resulted in the winner receiving less popular votes than the loser of the election

The election of 1824 is not the best example because neither candidate received enough electoral votes to win the presidency and the president was chosen by the House of Representatives. John Quincy Adams won this election with only 30% of the popular votes against Andrew Jackson's 41%

The election of 1876 was one of the closest and most controversial elections in American history. Rutherford B. Hayes beat Samuel Tilden by a single electoral vote although Tilden held 51% of the popular vote.

In 1888, incumbent president Grover Cleveland loss his bid at re-election to Benjamin Harrison in an electoral college landslide. Harrison beat Cleveland by 65 electoral votes but held 1% less of the popular vote than Cleveland.

Recently in 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore to win the presidency. Gore received 543,000 more popular votes than Bush, but Bush edged out the victory by getting 5 more electoral votes than Gore.