Electors who go rogue " called faithless electors " are rare and have never changed the result of an election. ___KICKING IT TO CONGRESSThere are 538 electors, and the winner must receive half of that plus one, or 270 electoral votes. Each state's House delegation has one vote, and must pick from the top three candidates who received the most electoral votes. Congress' role makes it less likely that Democrats, in particular, would split the electoral vote, says John Hudak, a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. If either Trump or Clinton were to die after the election and before the Electoral College votes, their electors would be free to vote for someone else.

Source: New Zealand Herald November 05, 2016 13:35 UTC