Question

The U.S. presidency is not won by a direct popular vote. Instead, the American president is elected through a system called the Electoral College. Each political party in a state appoints a slate of electors who are pledged to vote for the party's candidate. When Americans vote, they are actually voting for electors, who later will formally elect the president. The number of electors from each state is the same as the number of U.S. senators and representatives the state has. While all states have two senators, the number of representatives varies by population. Thus, more populous states will have more Electoral College votes than states with lower populations. Most states dedicate all their electoral votes to the candidate who won the popular vote in that state. For a presidential candidate to win, he or she must get at least 270 Electoral College votes nationwide. Which author's purpose is suggested by the text?

Answer 1

The author's purpose in this text appears to be informative and explanatory. The text provides information about the Electoral College system in the United States, how it works, and its significance in the presidential election process. It explains the role of electors, the allocation of electoral votes based on a state's representation in Congress, and the threshold of 270 electoral votes required for a candidate to win the presidency. The text aims to educate readers about the intricacies of the U.S. presidential election system.

Answer 2

The author aims to inform readers about the Electoral College, a system where 538 electors cast the formal votes to elect the U.S. president based on state popular votes, with a focus on the 'winner-take-all' approach and possibilities of winning the presidency without the national popular vote majority.

Step-by-step explanation:

The author's purpose suggested by the text is to inform and explain the workings of the Electoral College in the United States presidential election process. The Electoral College is a unique system where each state has electors equivalent to its number of Senators and Representatives in Congress, which are later responsible for formally electing the President and Vice President. The text emphasizes that this system does not rely on a direct popular vote but on the electoral votes that are often pledged to the candidates based on statewide popular votes, with a total of 538 electors and a minimum of 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency.

In most cases, states adopt a 'winner-take-all' approach, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which use the congressional district method. Despite the common plurality rule in most American elections, the Electoral College system can result in a candidate winning the presidency without having received the most popular votes nationwide, as demonstrated in the 2000 and 2016 elections.