WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- American voters go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president -- chief executive of the US government and commander-in-chief of the US military.

    However, Americans do not vote directly for presidential candidates. Instead, after ballots are tallied in each state, state representatives, called electors, vote based on the state tallies in an Electoral College, a system which has been operatingsince 1788.

    According to the system, a state's number of electoral votes equals the number of senators and House representatives combined from that state. As the number of House representatives are based on the size of population of each state, the number of electors varies from state to state.

    California, the largest state, has 55 electoral votes, while the sparsely populated Alaska has only three. The District of Columbia, which has no representatives in Congress, has three electoral votes.

    In all but two states -- Nebraska and Maine -- winner of the popular vote (the total number of votes cast by people in a given state) takes the state's total allotment of electoral votes.

    In Nebraska and Maine, five out of the total nine votes are distributed based on voting in congressional districts, rather than in the state as a whole.

    Under the Electoral College system, it is possible that a candidate who wins the popular vote may actually lose the electionif he/she wins fewer electors' votes.

    The Electoral College meet and officially vote for president and vice president on the first Monday following the second Wednesday in December in each presidential election year.

    A majority of 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538 is needed for victory.

    If no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives -- one of two houses of Congress -- must determinethe winner from the three candidates who receive the most votes inthe electoral college.

    In 1824, John Quincy Adams did not win a majority in the vote and was elected president by the House of Representatives in this way.

    The president and vice president take their oath and assume office on Jan. 20, following the election. Presidential election is held every four years and the president can be re-elected only once.

    The Electoral College is established and runs on basis of the US political system, in which three separate branches -- executive,legislative and judicial -- check and balance each other under theConstitution, and also results from compromises and concessions ofdifferent interest groups.

    In recent years, there have been calls for reform, but no material moves have been taken.

    The following is a summary of electoral votes held by each state and the District of Columbia for the presidential election.

    State Electoral votes

    Alabama 9

    Alaska 3

    Arizona 10

    Arkansas 6

    California 55

    Colorado 9

    Connecticut 7

    Delaware 3

    Dist. Of Columbia 3

    Florida 27

    Georgia 15

    Hawaii 4

    Idaho 4

    Illinois 21

    Indiana 11

    Iowa 7

    Kansas 6

    Kentucky 8

    Louisiana 9

    Maine 4

    Maryland 10

    Massachusetts 12

    Michigan 17

    Minnesota 10

    Mississippi 6

    Missouri 11

    Montana 3

    Nebraska 5

    Nevada 5

    New Hampshire 4

    New Jersey 15

    New Mexico 5

    New York 31

    North Carolina 15

    North Dakota 3

    Ohio 20

    Oklahoma 7

    Oregon 7

    Pennsylvania 21

    Rhode Island 4

    South Carolina 8

    South Dakota 3

    Tennessee 11

    Texas 34

    Utah 5

    Vermont 3

    Virginia 13

    Washington 11

    West Virginia 5

    Wisconsin 10

    Wyoming 3 Enditem