2. How our voting system has changed

Early in our history, many states required a majority to win an election. In some cases when there was no initial majority winner, a new vote was held, repeatedly, until a majority was achieved. For Congress, this meant elections a month or so apart. For state representatives, it meant re-voting on into the night or the next day at a town meeting. Some state and local governments adopted two-round runoff elections, to preserve majority rule, within just two elections. Eventually, plurality victories were accepted in many states. Pragmatism won out over pure majority rule. As other states joined the Union, some put plurality rule right in their constitutions.