text: The winner takes all system is that if a presidential canidate has more votes than the other in a state,then the entire states vote goes to the winner. Because of this many canidates don't visit states that are either low points, or that they know that they cant win. This exact event happened in the 2000 campaign, causing 17 states to not see the canidates at all, including states such as Rhode island and South Carolina. Because of this, the entire election was put in the hands of a few swing voters in Ohio.