George Washington was elected unanimously by the 69 electors from the 10 participating states in the in augural election of a US president in 1788. In practice how the system works in the 21st century’s USA of over 330 million people is very different from in the USA of 1788 with less than 4 million people, the underlying principle is still that the states each choose electors to an electoral college who together determine who is to be the president, but in practice today the people of each state get to vote for how their states electors will vote.

This is how it works, and a look at what could possibly stop it working as expected.