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Here is some additional info from the MSNBC
website. Thought you might be interested:
" Q. How are each state’s electoral votes allocated to presidential candidates? A. In 48 states, and in the District of Columbia, it is a winner-take-all system: The winner of the popular vote in a given state receives all of that state’s electoral votes. For instance, if Republican candidate George W. Bush – or more precisely, the slate of electors pledged to Bush — receives even one vote more than his Democratic rival, Al Gore, in the state of Ohio, Bush gets all 21 of Ohio’s electoral votes. This can result in an outcome that
might seem undemocratic. In 1992, Arizona’s eight electoral votes were awarded
to President George Bush, since he had received the most popular votes in the
state’s balloting. But 61 percent of Arizona’s voters had cast their ballots for
candidates other than Bush, i.e., for Bill Clinton or Ross Perot.
Q. The Constitution leaves it to the states to decide how to allocate electoral votes, and two states do not use the winner-take-all system. Which ones are they? A. In Nebraska and Maine, two of each state’s electors are chosen by a statewide popular vote and the rest are chosen by the popular vote within each congressional district. It is conceivable that this year
Gore could win statewide in Maine, but Bush could win the most votes in Maine’s
2nd Congressional District. If that were to happen, Gore would get three of
Maine’s electoral votes and Bush would get one of them."
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