The electoral college consists of 538 people- known as "electors"- who cast ballots for the president based on the of each state. each state gets the same number of electors as they have . the electors are chosen by each and are members of that political party. the electoral college is used only for presidential elections, and only in the election, not the elections. electoral votes from each state are awarded to the candidate who wins that state. all but two states use the " " system of awarding their electoral votes. maine and nebraska use the " " system: candidates are awarded electoral votes based on the districts they win within those states. for a candidate to win the election, he or she must win at least 270 electoral votes, a majority of the electoral votes.