Electoral College: A significant feature of the electoral college is that most states have a winner-take-all system.
(a) Describe the winner-take-all feature of the electoral college.
The winner takes all feature of the electoral college is when a candidate gains the majority of the state, he gets all of the state’s electoral votes.
(b) Explain one way in which the winner-take-all feature of the electoral college affects how presidential candidates from the two major political parties run their campaigns.
Two ways in which the winner takes all feature of the electoral college affects how presidential candidates run their campaigns are they target specific states or they target swing voters in their campaigns. Due to a candidate gaining all of the state’s electoral votes based on majority, a candidate may target specific states when presenting their platform, states that have issues are similar to the candidate’s, which increases the probability that said candidate will win their votes. A candidate may also target swing voters, if they know of specific areas with unaligned voters, they may present their campaign so as to sound more appealing and gather more votes in order to gain the majority.
(c) Explain one way in which the winner-take-all feature of the electoral college hinders third-party candidates.
Two ways in which the winner takes all feature of the electoral college hinders third party candidates are minority candidates rarely get the majority vote in any state, and less representation. Since majority in a state is required for the candidate to win all of the state’s electoral votes, a minority party is highly unlikely to beat the majority candidates and gain widespread votes over the entire state. Local areas may align with the minority candidate, but not the whole state. This is partly due to representation. Major parties
