HOUSTON — In the United States, voters don't directly vote for president. If they did, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House now, and Al Gore would have won in 2000. Both of them won the popular vote.
The U.S. elects its president through the Electoral College. So when you cast your ballot for President Donald Trump or former vice president Joe Biden, you're technically voting for a group of people who cast each state's official vote for president.
They're called electors.
There are 538 electors in all. Each state has a set number based on how many seats they have in Congress. 270 electoral votes is the magic number needed to win the White House.
Typically news organizations are able to call the winner on election night. This year, that's Nov. 3. But it may take a little longer this year due to a large increase in the number of mail-in ballots. Those take longer to process and count than in-person votes.
Here's how the process works: Each county will count its votes and election officials will certify each county's result. The governor of each state then certifies the statewide numbers.
States have until Dec. 8 to certify their results, because six days later, on Dec. 14, electors meet in every state to formally cast their votes for president and vice president. States then send the certificate of their votes to the nation's capital.
And on Jan. 6, the sitting vice president, Mike Pence, in this case, acting as the Senate president, presides over a joint session of Congress to real aloud the Electoral College results. Barring any objections from Congress, Pence officially certifies the vote.
Two weeks later, on Jan. 20, whoever won the election is sworn in as President and Vice President by Chief Justice John Roberts. It's a long, elaborate process, and this year, experts believe it could face many legal challenges along the way.