Hmm that's cool. I've been trying to understand the whole Us voting system for weeks, but I still don't get it. So I'm just watching BBC News channel and following CNN website...
Each state has a number of Electors (for the Electoral College) equal to their number of Representatives plus Senators.
For example, California has 53 Representatives, so they have 55 Electoral votes. (Each state has two Senators.)
In most states, the candidate who wins the popular vote for the state gets the Electors of their party sent to the Electoral College. However, in many states, they aren't required to vote for that candidate, but in practice, they always have.
Some states, however, split their Electoral votes on a percentage basis, so a state with four Electoral votes might go three to one party and one to another. Again, though, it's something that doesn't really happen in practice all that often, as the states which have passed such laws don't have a huge number of Electoral votes to split.
Ah how nice, that was most well put. Thank you. I now think I might get it. I myself live in a country where it's just a straight vote for everything so this all has been confusing me greatly.
Maine is one of those states and Nebraska is the other.
Maine and Nebraska split their vote as follows:
Whoever wins the popular vote (plurality) gets two electorial votes (basically the votes you get from having two senators), the remaining votes are split along the popular vote lines. However, due to the mass of population voting for one candidate or the other, neither state has actually ever split their vote. But they could. (Note: I am citing sources here saying they have never split their vote, so if they are wrong, I am wrong)
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Each state has a number of Electors (for the Electoral College) equal to their number of Representatives plus Senators.
For example, California has 53 Representatives, so they have 55 Electoral votes. (Each state has two Senators.)
In most states, the candidate who wins the popular vote for the state gets the Electors of their party sent to the Electoral College. However, in many states, they aren't required to vote for that candidate, but in practice, they always have.
Some states, however, split their Electoral votes on a percentage basis, so a state with four Electoral votes might go three to one party and one to another. Again, though, it's something that doesn't really happen in practice all that often, as the states which have passed such laws don't have a huge number of Electoral votes to split.
Hope that helps.
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Maine and Nebraska split their vote as follows:
Whoever wins the popular vote (plurality) gets two electorial votes (basically the votes you get from having two senators), the remaining votes are split along the popular vote lines. However, due to the mass of population voting for one candidate or the other, neither state has actually ever split their vote. But they could. (Note: I am citing sources here saying they have never split their vote, so if they are wrong, I am wrong)