Politics
How many Electoral College votes does your state have for the 2024 election? This map will show you.
By Paula Cohen
Updated on: November 5, 2024 / 11:41 PM EST / CBS News
Millions of votes are being counted in the 2024 presidential election. But it’s not the popular vote that decides the presidency — it’s the outcome of the Electoral College.
There are 538 votes in the Electoral College and it takes 270 — a majority — to win the presidency.
The race between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will likely come down to a handful of battleground states where voters are closely divided. Of those, Pennsylvania has the most electoral votes at stake, with 19, followed by North Carolina and Georgia with 16 each. Michigan has 15, Arizona has 11, Wisconsin has 10, and Nevada has 6.
It’s a winner-take-all system in most states, meaning the candidate who comes out ahead gets all of the state’s Electoral College votes. Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that allow their electoral votes to be split.
How many Electoral College votes does each state have?
The number of Electoral College votes each state gets is equal to its total number of U.S. senators and representatives in Congress. This means each state gets at least three, while states with larger populations get more. The District of Columbia also gets three, although it has no voting members in Congress.
All electoral votes go to the overall winner of the statewide popular vote, except in Maine and Nebraska where electoral votes are based on the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district and two additional votes go to the winner of the statewide popular vote.
Map: Grace Manthey / CBS NewsSource: National Archives
States may gain or lose electoral votes as the population shifts. In the congressional redistricting that followed the 2020 U.S. Census, six states picked up at least one additional House seat — and thus an extra electoral vote — while seven states lost one.
Which state has the most electoral votes?
California, the most populous state in the nation, has 54 electoral votes. With a population of over 39.5 million people, according to the 2020 Census, that means California has one elector for every 732,189 residents.
Texas is next, with 40 electoral votes, followed by Florida with 30 and New York with 28.
Which state has the least electoral votes?
Six states with the smallest populations have three electoral votes each: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. Washington, D.C., also gets three. In Wyoming, whose population of about 576,850 is the nation’s smallest, that works out to one elector for every 182,283 residents.
Which state has gained the most electoral votes?
Texas gained two electoral votes in 2024, giving it a total of 40 in this year’s presidential race, up from 38 in the 2020 election.
Five other states — Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon — gained one electoral vote each.
Which state has lost the most electoral votes?
Seven states lost an electoral vote in 2024: California, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The map below shows all the states that gained or lost Electoral College votes for the 2024 election.
Change in electoral votes 2020 to 2024
Between the 2020 and 2024 elections, the number of electoral votes changed in 13 states. Six states gained votes and seven states lost votes. Electoral votes for the 2024 election are allocated to states based on the 2020 Census.
