The Electoral College is a process used to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. It is not a physical place but a system established by the U.S. Constitution as a compromise between electing the President by a popular vote of citizens and by a vote in Congress. The process involves:

• Each state has a number of electors equal to its total number of U.S. Senators (always 2) plus its number of Representatives in the House, which varies by population. The District of Columbia also has 3 electors.
• There are 538 electors in total, and a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to win the presidency.
• During the general election, citizens vote for presidential candidates, but technically they are voting for a slate of electors pledged to that candidate.
• The slate of electors for the candidate who wins the popular vote in a state usually wins all the electors from that state (except in Maine and Nebraska, which allocate some electors by congressional district).
• Electors meet in their respective states in December to cast their official votes for President and Vice President.
• Those votes are sent to Congress, where they are counted in January, and the candidate with the majority of electoral votes wins and is inaugurated in January.

If no candidate receives a majority of 270 electoral votes, the election is decided by the House of Representatives, with each state delegation having one vote. The system is designed to balance the influence of smaller states with more populous ones and to create an indirect method of electing the President rather than by a direct popular vote.