The Electoral College is one of the more bizarre quirks of the US presidential race. Instead of relying on the popular vote, a presidential candidate needs the majority of the Electoral College — 270 out of 538 electoral votes — to win the White House on Election Day. (And, of course, if all the candidates fail to receive at least 270 votes, then the race is sent to the House.)
Electoral College map 2016: make your election result predictions
Each state and Washington, DC, is allocated a share of electoral votes based on the US Census. A state’s entire share of electoral votes goes to whoever wins the most votes — except in Maine and Nebraska, where instead votes are split up based on each state’s number of congressional districts and popular vote winner.
If you’re ready to predict how the Electoral College will split in the 2016 election, you can click on each state below to toggle among Democrat, Republican, and third parties.
A few tips:
- You can split Nebraska and Maine’s electoral votes, but be warned that it’s only ever happened once — in Nebraska in 2008.
- Polls suggest there’s a chance independent Evan McMullin might take Utah, but it’s extremely unlikely that any other state will have a majority third-party vote.
- The Vox Politics team thinks some states will definitely go Republican or Democrat but that there are 13 swing states left that are too difficult to predict right now. The map is prefilled with our suggestions above, but you can alternatively fill it out with 2012 results or clear out the entire map and start fresh.
- Want to share your map? Once you’ve made your selection, use the tweet button below the map to share a link to your own version on Twitter.
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