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Most states always give 100% of their electoral votes to the candidate with a simple majority of popular votes. Therefore, with three candidates, it is theoretically possible to be elected unanimously with only 34% of the popular votes.

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Q: How was it possible for a candidate who won nearly 20 percent of the popular vote to receive no votes in the electoral college?
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Continue Learning about American Government

What is safe district?

Safe District : Electoral district in which the candidate from the dominant party usually wins by 55 percent or more.


What margin is required to choose the president in the house?

If no candidate for the presidency wins a simple majority (51%) of the total number of electoral votes, then the House of Representatives have the power to choose the President of the US. Each state gets one vote. The margin required to choose the president in the House is a majority of those voting. The only time this happened, in 1824, the representatives of some of the states could not agree on how to vote and so those states did not vote.


How did how Abraham Lincoln win the presidency in 1860 with only 40 percent of the nation's popular vote?

There were three other candidates in 1860 who all had less than 40 percent of the votes. The popular vote doesn't even determine who becomes president, the electoral college does. Lincoln received more electoral votes than the other 3 candidates combined.


What was US Voter Turnout in 2004 Presidential Election?

Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election defeating Republican Party candidate John McCain. In the 2008 presidential election Barack Obama received 365 electoral votes and John McCain received 173 electoral votes. The popular vote totals were Obama 69,297,997 and McCain 59,597,520.


Do all electoral college votes from one state go to one candidate?

The District of Columbia and 48 U.S. states (all except Maine and Nebraska) utilize a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In a winner-take-all state, all of the state's Electoral votes go to whichever candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate). Maine and Nebraska use the "congressional district method", selecting one elector within each congressional district by popular vote and awarding two electors by a statewide popular vote.

Related questions

Presidential elections state sends 27 electors to the Electoral College one candidate receives 51 percent the second receives 48 percent and the third receives 1 percent how many electoral votes?

14


What percent does Maryland have of electoral college votes?

About 2.3 percent,


What percent of the electoral college vote did obama get in 2008?

67%


What is safe district?

Safe District : Electoral district in which the candidate from the dominant party usually wins by 55 percent or more.


Was the only president to ever receive 100 percent of the votes from the Electoral College?

George Washington


What president received 100 percent votes from the electoral college?

George Washington received 100% of the electoral votes and was unanimously elected President in 1789 and 1792.


What percent of the electoral college votes did Romney get?

not enough to beat obama so who reaaly cares! #2Terms


What does it mean if the electoral college is a winner-take-all system?

This phrase means "all or nothing". It refers to the practice of allotting all of a states electoral votes or delegates. in the case of primaries, to the one candidate who receives the most popular vote . All but two US states use this winner take all system in the presidential election.The alternative would be to split the votes proportionally in some way to reflect the popular vote. For example if a state uses winner take all and has 21. electoral votes, a candidate who wins the state by just one vote gets all 20 of the state's electoral votes. If the state did not use winner take all, it might give 11 votes to the winner and 10 votes to the other candidate.


What is the winner take all system of electoral college?

Winner-takes-all applies to all but 2 states currently members of the United States of America. Winner-takes-all refers to the representation of the state in the electoral college. Where it applies, the party candidates (more specifically their delegates) take up all seats in the electoral college of the state. If 50.1 peolple of one state vote Democratic, the Democratic delegates receive all seats in the electoral college of this state. If winner-takes-all does not apply to the state, there are other rules governing the allocation of seats, such as proprotional allocation or district-based allocation.


How are states' electoral votes determined?

The number of the state's representatives + its 2 senators


When states give all their electoral votes to candidate that wins the state?

In a winner-take-all state, all of the state's Electoral votes go to whichever candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate).


What is the highest percentage of the popular vote a presidential candidate can win yet still lose the election mathematically?

Theoretically, in the US, a candidate could win over 99% of the popular vote and lose the presidential election by winning 100% of the vote in states adding up to 268 electoral votes and lose the rest of the states (worth 270 electoral votes) by only a fraction of one percent, but realistically this would never happen since it is rare for most states to vote stronger than 70-30 in favor of either candidate, and most states are usually much closer than that.In reality, winning the popular vote and losing the electoral college only happens when the candidates are very close in the popular vote, such as in the 2000 election where Gore won the popular vote by around a half of a percent and Bush won the electoral college. I remember reading on a political site, fivethirtyeight.com, that anywhere up to a four percent win in the popular vote is where that situation has a realistic chance of occurring.Hope this answers your question.