Due to population changes in Illinois it's possible our electoral vote count will go down to 19 or more. It's often in the news that the population of this state is declining and especially downstate is losing population. If people are moving to Chicagoland it may not offset the number of people who are leaving Illinois.
It must be noted that the electoral college is a controversial subject. In the 2016 election, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. He won the majority of electoral votes, however, his Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Granted while President Trump is a public figure where there's hardly any in between as far as like or dislike this had been one controversy surrounding him.
The quirk of electing a President on Election Day in November is that while we make our choices for that office we're really electing a slate of electors. These electors are in state capitols throughout the nation to formally cast their votes for President. In most states and definitely Illinois if you win that state's popular votes you will win that state's electoral votes. Some states decides electoral votes according to a congressional district. Occasionally we do have what we call faithless electors who decide that they don't want to vote for their pledged presidential candidate.
Here's the funny thing about the electoral college, electors can actually vote for who they want to vote for. It's their job to elect the President, never mind the convention of pledging your vote as part of a slate to a particular candidate according to the wishes of the voters.
Needless to say the debate regarding the electoral college has led to calls for its abolition.
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