What is the Electoral College? How does it work?

Local and state officials elected into office in the U.S. are able to do so by winning the popular vote. However, the President of the United States is selected with the help of the Electoral College and the popular vote.

The Electoral College is the formal process in which the President and Vice President of the United States are elected into office.

In the Electoral College, Washington D.C. has its own three electors. 

In 48 states, plus Washington D.C., the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral votes for that state, according to USA.gov. This is apart from Maine and Nebraska, where a proportional system is used, per the source.

While the popular vote takes place in November, the electoral vote doesn't take place until about a month later, in mid-December. 

Slates of electors are chosen at state party conventions, or they are voted on by the party's central committee based on state or national party rules.

Electors pledge to vote for specific candidates, though they are not legally obligated to do so. While there is no federal law in place for electors to vote a certain way, penalties, like being disqualified from future ballots, are in place.

Through the years, there have been many calls made to change the Electoral College as we know it. 

"Over the years, there have been hundreds of proposed amendments to change the Electoral College, but only one has gotten remotely close to being passed after the 1968 presidential election saw Richard Nixon win against Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace," Piro said. "A 1969 bill to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote passed in the House of Representatives, and though it was endorsed by Nixon, the bill eventually died in the Senate after it was filibustered, and it still stands today."

"I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go," he said at a California fundraising event in October, according to a pool report at the event, Bloomberg reported. "We need a national popular vote, but that's not the world we live in."

In order to do away with the system created by the Founding Fathers, a major constitutional change would need to be made.