Each state has the same number of electors as Congress, and the District of Columbia also has electors, making the number 538 electors. Most states give all of their electoral votes to the candidate who won the state's popular vote.

California has 54 electoral votes, the most of any state.

More: Live California election results: Coachella Valley cities, House, Senate, propositions

Why does the Electoral College exist?

The Electoral College system is part of the U.S. Constitution and represents a compromise on whether the president should be elected by Congress or by a popular vote, USA TODAY reported.

In a Saint Louis University School of Law podcast, associate professor Greg Willard said the framers of the U.S. Constitution felt the “masses,” or male property owners, could not be trusted to elect the next president. Founding father Alexander Hamilton “expressed the importance of having voters,” two law reference librarians at the Law Library of Congress wrote in a 2012 blog post. They pointed to the Federalist Papers as a glimpse into the Electoral College, in which Hamilton wrote about who should decide the election and what qualities these men would have.