text: Also, acorrding to the Office of the Federal Register a total of 270 or more electoral votes are needed to elect a president. The total amount of votes consists of 538 electors, meaning there could be a tie in elections. This implys that the system is not fool proof and can have errors. However, if the popular votes were counted more than the electoral votes there would not be any chance of a tie and a president will always be elected. Most Americans do not know that they are voting for representatives who in turn vote for the president making this unfair. Thats just another reason why the electoral college is outdated and not needed.