Why does the Electoral College exist plus electoral votes by state

Each state has the same number of electors as it has in Congress, and the District of Columbia also gets electors, leading to 538 electors. Most states will give all their electoral votes to the candidate who won the state referendum.

California has 54 electoral votes, the most of any state.

More: California live election results: Coachella Valley cities, House, Senate, proposition

Why does the Electoral College exist?

The Electoral College system is part of the U.S. Constitution and represents a compromise between whether the president should be chosen by Congress or through a popular vote, USA TODAY reported.

In a Saint Louis University School of Law podcastadjunct professor Greg Willard said the writers of the U.S. Constitution felt that “the masses,” or male property owners, could not be trusted to choose the next president. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton “expressed the importance of having electors,” two law reference librarians from the Law Library of Congress wrote in a 2012 blog post. They pointed to the Federalist Papers as insight into the Electoral College, where Hamilton wrote about who would decide the election and the qualities those men would have.