How A presidential election is won by the candidate

A candidate needs at least 270 electoral colleges to win an election. These votes are spread out unevenly across the states based on the population. For example, California has 55 while Montana has 3. Within a state, the people vote for a candidate, and then the electoral votes either go entirely to the candidate that won the majority are split according to the percentage of votes (which way depends on the laws of the state).