The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #51389   Message #783302
Posted By: Nerd
13-Sep-02 - 03:48 PM
Thread Name: BS: US Election System
Subject: RE: BS: US Election System
Sorry, folks, I was a little imprecise about the way in which non "all-or-nothing" states pick their electors. It's not that 49% would vote for the minority, but that each congressional district gets an elector, and the majority in that district determines which party picks the elector. The two statewide electors are picked by statewide popular vote. So if a state has 25 congressional districts (this number is determined population), they will have 27 electoral college members--25 for their congressional districts and two for the state as a whole. If 12 of those congressional districts voted Democtratic and 13 Republican, and the statewide popular vote was Republican, the Republican Party would pick 15 electors and the Democrats 12.

The states that do this, BTW, are Maine and Nebraska.