Electoral College map 2016: make your election result predictions

Though the results of the early ballots will not be officially known until votes are tallied on Election Day, many states reveal the party registrations of those individuals who vote early, so that can give some non-exact indication of how they may have voted.

However, there’s no need to worry too much – there have only been four cases throughout history in which a president has won the Electoral College vote without winning the popular vote, after all.

You can thank the Founding Fathers for the electoral college.

Sonnenberg also noted faithless electors have never changed the outcome of a presidential election.

When was the Electoral College formed? That feat would require a constitutional amendment, and the last time a proposal escaped congressional committee was almost 50 years ago. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won large states including California, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania, but Republican George Bush had the support of small states and more support across the nation. “The theory was the president would actually represent everyone across the country”. They debated and tweaked the idea through 16 votes at the Constitutional Convention.

Each state receives an electoral vote for each U.S. Senator (two per state) plus one for each Congressional representative. In that three-way contest, Ronald Reagan took just under 51% of the popular vote, to Jimmy Carter’s 41% and independent John Anderson’s 6.6%.

The Democrats have an automatic edge in the electoral college because delegate-rich California (55) and NY (29) are considered safe “blue” states, according to the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

With Election Day less than one week away, some voters are starting to ask what could happen if either of the main Presidential candidates is elected. However, Gore lost because Bush won the electoral votes 271 to 266. This means that someone who is now a senator can not be an elector or someone who is a sitting House member can not be an elector.

There is only one way to have a voice in any of these elections or on any of these issues, and that is to vote.

Although the Constitution doesn’t offer a detailed list of qualifications, according to the National Archives and Records Administration, “Article II, section 1, clause 2, provides that no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed Elector”. In 2000, an elector from the District of Columbia abstained from voting as a protest of D.C.’s lack of congressional representation.

Based on the “winner-take-all” rules and traditions in 48 of the 50 states, the electors will then cast their votes in favour of the winning candidate of that state. The House must choose from among the top three finishers. Whoever wins the majority of votes wins the election.

The Senate would use a similar process to pick the vice-president.

Congress has named the president four times in USA history: electing Thomas Jefferson in 1800, John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford Hayes in 1876 and, technically, Gerald Ford in 1976.

Besides the presidential race, there are down-ballot elections that are just as important.

And that means that candidates regularly spend a disproportionate amount of time in high-electoral-vote battleground states like Florida and OH as they plot their “paths to 270”.

In a year when extraordinarily unlikely events have come to pass with surprising regularity, there is now considerable interest in the possibility that, when votes are counted on Tuesday, the result is inconclusive.

If the Senate convicts Clinton, Ross says she would then be ineligible to become President.

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