Hillary Clinton is set to be one of the 538 electors in the Electoral College for the US presidential election, she announced, on Tuesday, in an interview with YouTube channel SiriusXM. 

The 2016 Democratic nominee will be an elector from New York. “I’m sure I’ll get to vote for Joe (Biden) and (Senator Kamala) Harris in New York. So, that’s pretty exciting,” she said.

However, Clinton had previously called for scrapping off the Electoral College and opined that the president should be elected based on the popular vote. 

In 2016, although Clinton won almost 2.9 million more votes than Donald Trump, she lost the election after Trump secured a majority of votes in the Electoral College.

Even after the 2000 election, Clinton had called for an end to the Electoral College, when former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency. Clinton had told CBS News at the time, “I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people and to me, that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president.”  

Talking about when she plans to vote, the former Secretary of state said the lines where she lives have been several-hour long and “I’m waiting for either a break in the line so I can vote early, or I’ll just, you know, take up a bag lunch and go stand in line and vote on Election Day, depending upon what I can get done.”

What is the Electoral College?

The electoral college consists of 538 electors. The number of members that a state gets is based on the population size. California, the most populous state, has 55 electors. Some other sparsely populated states like Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming have only three electors each.

The system of electors in the US is loosely based on the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals selecting the Pope, the Telegraph reported. The most knowledgeable and informed individuals from each state would select a presidential candidate on merit.

It takes 270 electoral votes to get a majority of the Electoral College and win the presidential election.

So, the Americans cast their vote for electors and not the candidates themselves.