Social Sciences and History / Unit 9 SSH 0812 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Winner-Take-All and the District Exception: The Electoral Vote Rule
The idea
Sample question five asks how a state's electoral votes are awarded, and the key is that they go to the candidate who wins the most votes in that state. The anchor's key term says it in those words: under the winner-take-all system all electoral votes for a state are given to the candidate who wins the most votes there. Its section text supplies the frame: in most states electors cast their ballots for the plurality winner, then forward certificates to the Senate; a state's number of electors equals its representatives plus its senators. The exception is the district system: two states, Nebraska and Maine, give two votes to the statewide winner and one to the winner of each congressional district.
In practice
Choose the option that says the state's votes go to the candidate with the most votes in the state. Distractors will say a national popular vote decides, that votes are split in proportion to the state's vote, that Congress chooses, or that a majority rather than a plurality is required. Given "which states divide their votes", Nebraska and Maine. Given "when the electors vote", mid-December. Given "how many electors a state has", its House seats plus two.
Where people slip
The trap is proportional splitting; no state does it. The second trap is majority: the anchor says plurality, the most votes, not more than half.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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