House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), top right, reacts as Vice President Joe Biden, center top, presides over the counting of the electoral votes from the 2016 presidential election during a joint session of Congress in Washington on Jan. 6, 2017. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Presidential candidates in the United States win elections by winning the most electoral votes.
The Electoral College system apportions a certain number of votes to each state. When voters in a state vote for a party’s candidate, they’re actually casting a vote for that party’s slate of electors, or people chosen to cast electoral votes.
