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

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

The College of Electors is a little known process in the American electoral system. When Americans vote in the Presidential election, they are NOT voting directly for the candidate of their choice. Instead, they are voting for a representative to vote in the Electoral College...who may or may not vote there as the people of her state wish. Thus, there may be a very close race in the state, but since there are a limited number of Electors, usually the candidate with the most votes in the state has an Elector with the obligation to vote for the majority chosen. The Elector has one vote, so the majority wins...winner take all.

Answer 3

If a state has the winner take all feature that means that whoever wins the state gets all of the state's electoral votes. So a candidate may take a state by only a fraction more than 50% of the vote, but all of the electoral college votes from that state will go to that candidate. This is one factor that allows some candidates to win the presidency even if they lose the national popular vote by a small margin. They have won enough electoral college votes (the ones that count in determining the winner) by a small enough margin that they overtake their opponent who might have won more popular votes from states with fewer electoral votes at stake.

Answer 4

In each state (except Maine and Nebraska), the winner of that state takes all of that state's electoral votes. For example, Ohio has 18 Electoral Votes. If the Republican candidate would win a mere 51% of all the people's votes, then all 18 of the state's electoral votes would be given to the Republican candidate.

This can result in a President being elected who did not actually receive as many votes as another candidate. It is theoretically possible for the a candidate to win by just one vote in the 11 largest states and get no votes at all in the other 39 states and DC and still win the election.

Answer 5

The winner take all system means that all of electoral votes from a state go to the candidate who receives the majority of votes. It also means that electoral votes are not proportionally distributed, meaning that if a candidate gets 51% of citizens votes they receive 100% of the electoral votes.

Answer 6

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).

Answer 7

In a presidential election, the term "winner takes all" means the person who gets the most votes in a state takes all of the electoral votes. This system is used by most of the states.

Answer 8

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