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"  Electionista&amp;#039;s expert, Keli Goff, answers YOUR questions about the 2008 race to the White House! How does the Electoral College work? \u2014Kayce, 18, Pratville, AL Hi Kayce. Great question! The Electoral College is made up of 538 elected representatives from each state, who officially cast the determining ballots for president. These representatives are specifically elected to the position of elector and therefore cannot be current federal elected officials at the time they receive their electoral college position. (The number of electoral votes allowed for each state is equal to the number of Senators and Congressman for that state. For instance, Florida has 27 electoral votes which means they have two Senators and 25 members of Congress.)  So what does this really mean for the rest of us? It means that after we regular people cast our votes and the votes are counted, whichever candidate receives the majority of the popular vote in that particular state will win the total electoral votes in that state. (The only two exceptions are the states of Maine and Nebraska which do allow candidates to split the Electoral College votes in their state as opposed to the winner take all system of other states).  This is why it is possible for the person who wins the popular vote to not win the presidential election \u2014 which is what happened in the 2000 election. Vice-president Al Gore won the popular vote \u2014 mainly because he won states with large populations like New York, but this was offset by the fact that he did not win the majority (270 or more) of the electoral college votes.  Some have questioned the usefulness of an indirect election system but others believe our Founding Fathers were on to something when they created it. What do you think? Post-Election Ed. Note: Obama won the 2008 election with 365 electoral votes. (Like Keli said, you need 270 to win!). The popular vote came in at 65,444,394 for Obama (or 53%) and 57,446,223 (or 46%) for McCain. Do you have a post-election question? Click here to submit yours to the Electionista experts! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/a2587/electoral-college-keli-goff/>