>I presume you base your observation on the premise that Gore has won the
>majority of the Popular vote?
>
>I think this would make him the winner under an English-style
>"first-past-the-post" system if the USA was considered one huge electorate.

Craig,

Actually, that's not strictly true. Each seat in the U.K. is contested on
a first-past-the-post basis but the overall election 'result' is based on
the number of seats won by the parties. The leader of the party which
gains the most seats, or heads a coalition of parties which together
control over 50% of the seats, becomes the Prime Minister. The 1951
General Election in the U.K., despite the fact that the Labour Party won
a bigger share of the popular vote, was won by the Conservative Party
(and Winston Churchill, who had been slung out of office by a
whichever-way-you-count-it-landslide after the war, became PM) .

All the best

Adrian