Sugar cane plantations in the colonies of the West Indies. The older Sugar and Molasses tax charged the customer a duty of 6 pence per gallon of molasses. The bribe to customs officials per gallon of smuggled molasses was 1.5p. The new Sugar Act lowered the duty to 3p per gallon. The British wrongly assumed that Americans would be willing to accept the newly reduced tax. The smuggling continued until 1766 when the tax was lowered to one pence, making it cheaper to legally pay the tax than to smuggle.
The President and Vice President of the United States are elected by the Electoral College, which consists of 538 presidential electors from the fifty states and Washington, D.C. . Presidential electors are selected on a state-by-state basis, as determined by the laws of each state.
The electoral votes for all 50 states are added and the candidate with the majority of the votes wins! How Many Electoral Votes Does Each State Get? Remember, the number of electors from each state is based on the stateâs representation in Congress. For example, the most populous state, California, has 55 electors. The least populous statesâAlaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyomingâhave three electors each. The map below shows how many electoral votes each state has.