I'm German and interested in US-American politics, but my English is not the best, so please excuse my English and explain the answer by slow degrees.
I have a question about the electoral system of the presidential election: Is the circumstance, that a candidate can win the election without the citizen-vote-majority, based on TWO REASONS? We can go that through taking the election of 2000 (Bush).
reason: The number of the electors is in proportion to the population of the U.S. states (approx. 1 elector per 600.000 citizens), BUT AT LEAST 3 electors per state. Just that last-mentioned constraint (according to the ratio of distribution Alaska would have just one elector) is the first reason.
reason: majority voting system/ "The winner takes it all"-principle: Since a candidate with the majority of the citizens' votes get all elector-votes, no matter how slightly the advance is, this candidate benefits from this system that has a very slight advantage (especially in big states with many electors), whereas this candidate that wins only in these states, where they gain a huge majority (approx. 100 %), are in some circumstances at a disadvantage (because all further votes after the 50% are "given away", should be better in other states to gain the majority).
Are my presumptions correct? Any more amendments? Is there a website, where are listed my two reasons and further reasons? Did, in these four elections, where the candidate won the election without having the majority of the citizens' votes, both of my two mentioned reasons play a part? But first of all, would it also last when we take the 2000 presidential election as an example.
PS: An alleged advantage of the electoral vote system is that the smaller states gain more influence. But due to the fact that the number of the electors is in proportion to the population, this advantage is not obvious for me (except for Alaska). (same in the House of Representatives election.) This advantage for the smaller states is for me only obvious in the Senate race because every state has two senators - independent from its size.
Off topic: You say in English "to vote for somebody", but without preposition in the locution "to vote Republican"? Could you please explain that with more detail?
You can also correct my English, but that's not necessary.