Understanding the US electoral system

The US president is not elected directly by the people but through the vote of the electors, the members of the electoral college. Each state has as many electoral votes as it has members of Congress. The presidential candidate with the majority of the popular vote in a given state (i.e. votes by the people voting in that state) gets all the electoral votes from this state. This "winner takes all" system has a profound impact on how campaigns are run. 

The McCain/Palin campaign just decided to pull out of Michigan. That means, they are not campaigning in Michigan anymore: McCain and Palin don't hold any more events there, they don't spend any more money on TV ads, the volunteers move on to a different battleground state. Why? Because recent polls show that they don't have a chance to win that state anymore. Of course, McCain will still get a considerable amount of the popular vote, but not the majority. Therefore he will not get the electoral votes of Michigan. 

To learn more about this issue, go here.

Click on the map and answer the questions on the hand-out.