US election 2024: How many electoral college votes are needed to win

The US electoral college determines if Republican ex-president Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win their bid to become the US President for the next four years.

The election isn't a national race determined by the popular vote but a state-by-state race under the electoral college. Getting the most votes in one of the 50 states means the candidate collects all of its so-called electoral college votes. In total, there are 538 electoral college votes and a candidate needs to gain a majority, so at least 270, to take the presidency.

For example, in the last election President Joe Biden won 306 electoral college votes, while incumbent Donald Trump won 232. Trump later made unfounded accusations the election was rigged.

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The number of electoral votes a state has is linked to the size of its population. The most populous state California, for example, has the most with 54, while sparsely-populated states like Wyoming and Alaska have just three, the minimum. Florida has 30 votes, New York 28, Texas 40, Pennsylvania and Illinois 19, and Ohio 17.

Electoral votes are allocated among the states based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of Senators and Representatives in its US Congressional delegation—two votes for its Senators in the US Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.

Under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia, where the capital Washington is, was allocated three electors and treated like a state for purposes of the electoral college.

Why is the vote organised this way?

When the US Constitution was being drawn up in 1787, a national popular vote to elect a president was almost impossible because America is so vast - Texas alone has 268,820 square miles - and communication was all but impossible.

The Constitutional Convention in 1787 settled on the Electoral College as a compromise between delegates who thought Congress should select the president and others who favoured a direct nationwide popular vote. Instead, state legislatures were entrusted with appointing electors.