The votes are in the hands of electors. The people choose the electors; it's the electors (in theory at least) that actually elect the President and Vice President. The people have to trust the electors to vote for the right candidate.
Each state has one elector for every Senator that it sends to the Senate and one for every Representative that it sends to the House of Representatives. Every state has two senators, and the seven least populous states each have one representative – hence three electors. In addition, Washington DC has three electors because it is entitled to the same number as the state or states with the fewest.
The seven least populous states are Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
The number of representatives is roughly proportional to the population of the state, so the most populous states have the most electors. The most populous state of all, California, has 55; second is Texas with 38, and third is New York with 29. The total number of electors is currently 538.
When US voters go to the polls, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, they are actually choosing electors. In all but eight states, however, the ballot papers show the names of the presidential candidates, rather than the names of the electors. I don't even pretend to know how this works, and I shall stop there.
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