Many people were surprised when Donald Trump was elected President in 2016. Why? Because more people voted for Hillary Clinton. Two million more, in fact.

So how did she lose if more people voted for her? Because we do not vote directly for the president. We vote for Electoral votes. A candidate needs the most Electoral votes to win the election.

Have you heard of the Electoral College? It’s not a school. It is the way we elect the President. It was set up by the Founding Fathers. They made the first laws for our country.

Each state has two U.S. Senators. Each Senator gets one Electoral vote. So every state starts with two votes. States get one Electoral vote for each of its U.S. Representatives. States with more people have more Representatives. States with less people have less.

Let’s look at Maryland. Maryland has two Senators. It has eight Representatives. So it has 10 Electoral votes. On election day, voters go to the poles. They vote for their favorite candidate. At the end of the day, Maryland counts all these votes. The candidate with the most votes wins Maryland’s 10 Electoral votes.

After an election, all the states count their votes. They tell which candidate won in which states. Then they add up all the Electoral Votes. The candidate with the most Electoral votes wins.