WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (AFP) - The next president of the United States will be decided on December 13 by the 538-member Electoral College made up of electors from each US state and the nation's capital chosen during Tuesday's presidential election.
Each of the 50 US states, plus Washington DC, has a minimum of three Electoral College votes, but those with the largest populations have the most.
The distribution is recalculated every 10 years to take into account shifts that have occurred in the nation's demographics.
To win, a candidate must secure at least 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes, making a few states especially important: the Democratic bastion of California, with 55 electoral votes; the Republican stronghold of Texas, with 34; heavily Democratic New York, with 31; and politically divided Florida, with 27.
The Electoral College does not exactly mirror the popular vote, however, as 48 of the 50 states award all of their electoral votes to the candidate who garnered the most votes in the state.
Nebraska, with five electoral votes, and Maine, with four, are the only exceptions, assigning their Electoral College votes to the candidate who won in each individual congressional district and the rest proportionally based on the number of votes won by each candidate.
In Colorado, electoral seats could be divided up between incumbent George W. Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry if a proportional representation referendum on the ballot on Tuesday succeeds.
The Electoral College members will convene in each state's capital on December 13 and submit their votes under seal to the US Congress, where they will officially be reviewed on January 6.
The system means that candidates must concentrate on states where the result is uncertain. This year, the key battleground states include Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Citizens in US territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, Samoa and the Virgin Islands are not eligible to participate in the US presidential election.
10/31/2004 02:57 GMT - AFP