"how might a state lose or gain one of its electoral votes"
The electoral college votes are based on the number of senators (2 for each state) plus the number of representatives (roughly one for every 500,000 people) per state. Thus Florida has 27 Electors (2 for the senators and 25 for the c13million population).
Each state (and the District of Columbia) is guaranteed at least three Electors however small it is (2 senators and 1 representative) so Wyoming which has a population of 453,000 gets the same number of electors as say Nebrasksa with 800,000.
It would therefore pay to wrap up the small states as they would deliver more Electors per head of population, but in practice it is easier to concentrate on the biggest states such as California, New York, Texas etc as you'd get more Elector votes per campaign dollar spent.
How about a directly elected president?
Graham Ralph, Gravesend, UK
Electoral College votes are awarded (in all but 2 states) on "a winner takes all" principle. Consequently, a candidate may lose a state in a very close race and get NO electoral votes, while win overwhelmingly in another state.
Suppose there are only three states each with 10 electoral votes: State 1: 1 million for A; 900,000 for B. State 2: 1 million for A; 900,000 for B. State 3: 100,000 for A; 1,800,00 for B.
A wins with 20 electoral votes, although B has has over a million more popular votes.
Step-by-step explanation: