"Presidents are elected not by direct popular vote but by 538 members of the Electoral College"

This quote by Thomas E. Mann is describing the process of choosing a president in the United States. The president is not elected by a direct popular vote of individuals, but instead by 538 members of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is comprised of agents from each state and the District of Columbia, and each state is assigned a certain number of electors based upon its population. The electors then cast their elect the president, and the candidate who gets most of the electoral votes is stated the winner. This system of electing a president was developed in the Constitution and has actually remained in place since the first presidential election in 1789. It is developed to ensure that all states, despite population size, have a say in the election of the president.