They break the election into smaller elections, based on where people live. It doesn’t matter if someone gets 99% of the votes in that area, or 50.0000001% of the votes. Winning is winning.
So if someone wins 49% of the smaller elections, but wins them with a high enough amount, they can have more total votes and still lose the whole thing.
Edit:
Let’s say there are only 3 areas of 10 people each.
Area 1: Goes to Person A
Person A: 9
Person B: 1
Area 2: Goes to Person B
Person A: 4
Person B: 6
Area 3: Goes to Person B
Person A: 4
Person B: 6
So person B wins 2 of the 3 mini elections, which makes them win the whole thing.
Person B had 13 votes, Person A had 17 votes.
Person A would win if it was “popular vote”
The US election is an election of elections.
They break the election into smaller elections, based on where people live. It doesn’t matter if someone gets 99% of the votes in that area, or 50.0000001% of the votes. Winning is winning.
So if someone wins 49% of the smaller elections, but wins them with a high enough amount, they can have more total votes and still lose the whole thing.
Edit: Let’s say there are only 3 areas of 10 people each.
Area 1: Goes to Person A
Person A: 9
Person B: 1
Area 2: Goes to Person B
Person A: 4
Person B: 6
Area 3: Goes to Person B
Person A: 4
Person B: 6
So person B wins 2 of the 3 mini elections, which makes them win the whole thing.
Person B had 13 votes, Person A had 17 votes.
Person A would win if it was “popular vote”