In the United States, a candidate becomes president not by winning a majority of the national popular vote but through a system called the Electoral College, which allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population.

Presidential elections in the U.S. aren't decided by popular vote. They are instead determined by the Electoral College. Here's how it works.

The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College at 1787’s Constitutional Convention, lifting the concept from the Holy Roman Empire, which established the method in the year 962, to choose emperors.