SEATTLE — As polls close across the nation on Election Day, votes have yet to be tallied from West Coast states. Washington, a state that historically votes Democrat, has several electoral votes up for grabs.
Washington state has 12 electoral votes, which sits in the middle of most states, but is no comparison to California's 54 electoral votes or 40 electoral votes for Texas.
Nearby, Oregon has eight electoral votes and Idaho has four votes.
The Electoral College has 538 votes, a system upheld for decades. Presidential candidates must secure 270 electoral votes to win the White House.
This Electoral College system appoints electors to represent each state’s interest when certifying election results and counting the vote.
Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress, though that number can vary depending on U.S. Census population reports.
In most states, the Electoral College is a winner-takes-all system, meaning candidates who win the popular vote then receive all of the electoral votes in that state. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, use the “congressional district method,” which gives two electoral votes to the winner of the state’s popular vote and one vote to the popular vote winner in each congressional district.
