Each US state’s number of electors is equal to its total number of members in Congress: the state’s House representatives plus its two senators.

Basic formula

  • Each state gets 2 electors for its two US senators.
  • It then gets 1 elector for each of its representatives in the House.
  • So, electors per state = number of House members + 2.

Because every state has at least one representative, every state has at least three electors.

Role of population and the Census

  • The number of House seats a state gets is based on its population, measured by the nationwide Census that happens every 10 years.
  • After each Census, the 435 House seats are reapportioned among the states, and that can make states gain or lose electors for the next presidential elections.

Total number of electors

  • There are 538 electors in total: 435 for House members, 100 for senators, and 3 for Washington, D.C. under the 23rd Amendment.
  • Washington, D.C. is not a state but gets 3 electors, the same as the least populous states.

Examples

  • California has 52 House members + 2 senators = 54 electors.
  • Smaller states like Wyoming or Vermont have 1 House member + 2 senators = 3 electors.

In short: the number of electors per state is not chosen arbitrarily; it is locked to that state’s representation in Congress, which is driven by population through the Census.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.