How do states select electors?

Presidential Electors are actual people serving in a federal office. Their one duty is to cast the electoral votes for President and Vice President. Article II of the Constitution says:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress....
 

The Framers of the Constitution gave state legislatures broad power to select Electors so that they could figure out how best to represent their own state. If legislators try to ignore their state, they abuse that power.

State legislatures have sometimes directly appointed Electors. They have created special districts to elect them, or used Congressional Districts as Maine and Nebraska do today. But the most common method of selecting Presidential Electors is based on the statewide vote, the so-called winner-take-all method.