Corporate DispatchPro
The sum of parts is greater than the whole Donald J. Trump registered the biggest defeat of any winning presidential candidate in US history. If that statement needs reading twice, it is because of the peculiarity of the American voting system. In a few words, the US presidency goes not to the candidate who obtains the largest share of total votes, but to whoever wins in most states.
The US election is, really, a string of elections in 50 states across the country and presidential candidates compete in each of them simultaneously. However, when American citizens drop their ballots – or send them by mail – they do not vote directly for the presidential and vice presidential combo they want installed at the Whitehouse. They vote for the women and men who pledge to vote for that ticket on their behalf in another election that takes place roughly a month after the popular one. Here lies the perennial debate about the Electoral College versus the Popular Vote. The women and men who ultimately vote for the president, known as Electors, act as the representatives of the will of their respective states and form the Electoral College. The sizes of Electoral Colleges vary according to the population and, based on the latest US Census in 2010, states have one Elector for every 711,000 citizens. And this is where the Presidential Election becomes a numbers game. California is the biggest prize, awarding 55 Electoral Votes, followed by Texas with 38. Eight states from Vermont to Alaska have 3 Electoral Votes each, the smallest number. In total, there are 538 Electoral Votes up for grabs, and the candidate who can stitch together 270 is declared US President. 17
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