Question: Why have elections when the state's winner will receive all the electoral votes?

Answer:

Electors are allowed to vote for whichever candidate they want. An elector who votes for an opposing presidential candidate is called a 'faithless elector'. The last time an elector changed his vote was in 1988 when a Democratic elector voted for Lloyd Bentsen over Michael Dukakis.

Learn more about the electoral college:

• What is the electoral college?
• Why did the Founding Fathers create electors?
• How many total electoral votes are there?
• How many electoral votes does a candidate need to win?
• Which states have the most electoral votes?
• How many electors does each state have?
• What about Washington, D.C. and the electoral vote?
• What happens if there is a tie in the electoral college?
• Who are the electors?
• What procedure is followed for the electors to vote?
• Has someone received a plurality of the vote yet lost in the electoral college?
• Has a tie ever occurred in the electoral college? When?
• Why don't the candidates get a proportion of the electoral vote?
• If the state's winner chooses electors, won't the person with the most votes win?
• When do we finally have an official winner?