TEFL in Adult Education: Culture File USA: Presidential Elections, Part 2

In terms of candidates winning an election, the popular vote remains the most significant parameter in modern western democracies.

In many democratic states, proportional representation means that the distribution of seats in a legislative institution such as a parliament corresponds closely with the number of total votes cast by the electorate for each political contestant. Thus, the seats in parliament for each contender reflect the proportion of votes cast and, in many cases, political parties have to build a coalition to achieve sufficient mandates in order to form a government.

In other cases, a "winner-takes-all" system is in place; the party with the most votes can gain a majority of seats in the legislature and form the government consisting of solely its own representatives, excluding political competitors from active participation. This system favors two or more larger parties and systematically disadvantages smaller contestants. The United Kingdom is a prominent example of the "winner-takes-all" system.

In the United States, though, the outcome of the elections is not decided according to the popular vote, i. e. the number of votes cast for a party, but on the number of electors in the Electoral College these votes translate into.

In some of the states, the "winner-takes-all" system has been established, which allows the party with a majority of popular votes to send their delegates to Congress and their electors to the Electoral College. Others may split their electors depending on the outcome of the elections in smaller electoral districts.

All in all, the number of electors provided by the US states is 538, depending on the population size in each US state. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to become president, and in the past, the White House saw a number of occupants who had fewer votes than their opponent but managed to gain more electors, among them Donald J. Trump in 2016.