The United States is one of the oldest democracies in the world and it still follows the same election system set by its founders nearly 250 years ago. The US presidential election, the process that selects arguably the most powerful person in the world, is a mega-event for the entire planet. But what is the system that makes this election work? What is this "Electoral College" through which Americans will elect who holds the Oval Office for the next four years?

The most important details for outsiders to understand is that the United States of America is a federal state, made up of 50 states. Around the late 18th century, when the US Constitution was being drafted by the country's founding fathers, there was intense debate over how to elect the president going forward. Some wanted for a direct election system where the president was chosen by the people, while others proposed that Congress members should elect the president.

Small states, those with low populations where slavery was a major factor, opposed a direct election, fearing their diminishing influence in getting a say over who would be president. On the other hand, electing a president through Congress could potentially go against the principle of separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government. To find a compromise between these contradicting views, the "Electoral College" system was the option founding fathers went for.

In the Electoral College system, each state holds its own election to determine which candidate the people of that state prefer as president. Each state has a specific number of electors, and in all states other than Nebraska and Maine, the candidate who wins the majority vote receives all of that state's electoral votes. For instance, Pennsylvania has 19 Electoral College votes. Among Pennsylvania's 9 million voters, the candidate who gets the majority will get all 19 votes, regardless of the margin.

You may wonder who decides how many Electoral College votes Pennsylvania will have. According to the US Constitution, each state is allocated electoral votes equal to the sum of its members in Congress and the Senate. Pennsylvania has 17 Congressional representatives, and every state has two Senate members. This gives Pennsylvania 17 + 2 = 19 Electoral College votes. The 19 electors selected to cast these votes are now allowed to be members of Congress or the Senate. States have the freedom to determine their own method of selecting electors, but the electors are required to vote for the candidate who won their state, their own political allegiances are not a factor here.

Nationwide, there are 435 members in the US House of Representatives and 100 in the Senate, giving us a total of 535. But we know that the total number of Electoral College votes is actually 538. Then where do these three extra votes come from?

The District of Columbia is a federal area that includes the US capital, Washington, D.C., but it is not a state. As a result, it has no representatives in Congress or the Senate. In 1961, a constitutional amendment granted the District of Columbia three Electoral College votes so they too could have a say in who is president.

This makes the number 538 crucial in US presidential elections. A candidate needs 270 votes out of 538 to win a majority, and over the past few months, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have been locked in a tussle to see who can reach this number.

The compromise of the Electoral College benefits smaller states. It allows them to cast more votes relative to their population. This system was intended to give smaller states a voice, but over time, it has revealed weaknesses in the US electoral system. In states with high populations, a citizen's vote in the presidential election holds less weight than in states with lower populations. In 2020, each Electoral College vote in Wyoming, the smallest state in terms of population, represented fewer than 200,000 people. In California, a populous state, each vote represented over 700,000 people. Thus, it can be said that individual votes in larger states have less influence than those in smaller states.

On top of that, there have been instances where candidates were able to win the Electoral College even though they did not receive the majority of votes nationwide. This has happened five times in US history, the most recent cases being Republican presidents George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016.

Another problem with this system is that states where the outcomes are predictable, where elections are likely to be one-sided, don't get enough attention from candidates or the media. In states like New York and Massachusetts, which have been consistently Democratic, or Texas and Alabama, which are strongholds for Republicans, both parties have invested little time and effort. Meanwhile, states with close elections, where both parties feel like they have a chance to win, election campaigning, analysis, debates, and discussions get a lot of focus. The US media calls them "swing states". This year, the seven swing states are considered to be Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and North Carolina.

The US, with its vast 50-state structure, has structured its election system over nearly 250 years, yet major questions remain. This year's election is expected to be one of the closest in recent memory. It will be interesting to see which candidate can leverage the Electoral College system to eke out any advantages that help them secure a win.