Practice problem
Application of Percents
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In the American presidential election system, there are 50 states and each has their own amount of electoral votes, roughly proportional to each state's population. In total, there are 538 electoral votes. Apart from Nebraska and Maine, each state allocates all of its electoral votes towards the candidate who achieves the most votes in the state. When only 2 serious candidates are running, any candidate who achieves more than half of the total 538 electoral votes, will win the election.
The popular vote measures the total number of votes candidate receives across all states, divided by the total number of votes cast overall.
Which of these is the smallest percentage of the popular vote that a winning candidate could have in a 2-candidate race?