but it does decide if you get to be President of the United States.

In the United States, citizens over the age of 18 can vote in Presidential elections.

This is called the popular vote.

But it's the electoral college that actually chooses the president.

And you need 270 electoral votes to become president.

The founding fathers created the electoral college

because they worried states with smaller populations might not get fairly represented.

They also didn't think the common man was informed enough to choose a suitable president.

So they created the electoral college.

Today it has 538 members.

That’s one for every member of the House of Representatives and Senate, representing all 50 states.

In addition, Washington DC has three electoral college members.

To win the presidency, you must win at least 270 electoral votes.

And to win electoral votes, for the most part you need to win the popular vote in each state.

By winning California’s popular vote and you take home the state’s 55 electoral votes.

And if you win the popular vote in Texas and you win that state’s 38 electoral votes.

This is called the winner-take-all system.

But sometimes, a candidate wins the popular vote nationally but doesn’t amass enough electoral votes.

This happened in 2000. Democratic candidate Al Gore won the popular vote nationwide,

yet Republican George W. Bush won Florida in a close contest.

That was enough to give him the electoral vote victory.

Only four times in America’s history has the popular vote been different from the electoral vote.