US election 2020: How is the winner decided? - BBC News

oth candidates compete to win electoral college votes.

Each state gets a certain number of electoral college votes partly based on its population and there are a total of 538 up for grabs, so the winner is the candidate that wins 270 or more.

This means voters decide state-level contests rather than the national one, which is why it’s possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally - like Hillary Clinton did in 2016 - but still be defeated by the electoral college.

[AbrahamLincoln]

About 144, 000, 000 + Americans in total voted in this election. Truly historic.

[AnilKumar-wjtz]

Congratulations American friends from India 🇮🇳

[alvyandana]

Americans : we’re voting to choose some people as our representatives to choose our next president, regardless who won the popular vote



Indonesians: we’re choosing the next president based on popular vote only (with all the controversies, ofc)

[lucienramirez]

For all my Non American friends, this is why we have this stupid system:

The system was specifically designed to try to balance power between states with a large population and states with a smaller population. Each state gets two electoral votes plus whatever the number of representatives that state has in the House of Representatives. So for example Texa has 36 representatives plus two senators that's 38 votes. The biggest issues that this system has is that most of the states have a winner takes all style of voting. So for example Trump barely squeaked out a majority of the vote in Texas, but he got all 38 of the state's votes. But it also means that in small states an individual's vote matters more than another individual's in a state like California or New York.

The founders literally had to take power away from the majority to appease small states and get the country started and had been a fixture in our country from the inception. It sucks and there's been several attempts to get rid of the electoral college since we don't need it anymore, but the two parties never seem to agree as it favours one over the other every time they try.

[banz]

And this is where we go back to the 2000's as Trump is getting the supreme court to count each vote.

[azitula]

The reporter has a better understanding of our election system than an average American...I'm very impressed.

[bogie]

Perfect🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 congratulation for you Mr. Presiden Joe From 🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨

[knightwolf]

Joe Biden to Donald Trump: YOU ARE FIRED

[Andrewx]

Notice how the same Leftists who spent the last 4 years saying the 2016 election was interfered with by Russia are now saying there's absolutely no way the election could be meddled with?

[bltlife]

A lot of people are saying that Donny lost.

[jameshines]

Can't wait to see what happens next !!!

[juanindojorgijanad]

#USElection2020 results:
#Biden/#Harris: 306 of 538 electoral votes (81 million popular votes)
#Trump/#Pence: 232 of 538 electoral votes (74 million popular votes)

[giman]

Voting irregularities being investigated...so be patient.

[KevTheImpaler]

The BBC trying to stay neutral, although I am not sure the last presenter quite managed it.

[mariacheebandidos]

2:57 thats mostly just party lines, its not necessarily for him. 
for few percentage of voters ever change the party affiliation based on individual candidates

[princeofdubai]

Trump: well it's better i go and play golf, because if i dont, I'm gonna put a hole in one. 😂 🔫

[verbronze]

There’s only like a hundred videos on this by the BBC but sure why not have another

[chriskim]

Maybe get rid of electoral college and do the popular vote system. If u are q republican in a blue, democrat state, those ppl won't go out to vote as much and vice versa with democrats living in the red state. With the popular vote, more ppl will be willing to vote cuz their votes would actually matter and more ppl will vote

[ChillFrost]

I thought media and press decides the winner.

[Danny-jbpg]

The cheating started when everyone went to bed