Why is the electoral college considered "51 separate elections" instead of one national election?

Because each person does not actually vote for a president. When we vote for a candidate we are actually voting for a group of electors, to elect our president off of each states popular vote excluding Maine which does proportional voting.

Explanation:

Let's say you live in Kansas and electoral votes are based off of number of Congressmen/women which totals 6 2 senators and 4 reps which equals 6 electoral votes. A person voting in this state is voting either for 6 republican electors or democratic electors. When you vote for a candidate if that state goes republican those 6 GOP electors vote for the nominee that the state won. Washington D.C gets three electors even though it is not a state. So each state holds a separate elections since we all are voting for electors of the party you vote for. As well as D.C which that right was given to them in the 70s.

you can't, but you can edit them

union blockade

explanation:

the union blockade in the american civil war was a naval strategy by the united states to prevent the confederacy from trading.

the blockade was proclaimed by president abraham lincoln in april 1861, and required the monitoring of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of atlantic and gulf coastline, including 12 major ports, notably new orleans and mobile. those blockade runners fast enough to evade the union navy could only carry a small fraction of the supplies needed. they were operated largely by british citizens, making use of neutral ports such as havana, nassau and bermuda. the union commissioned around 500 ships, which destroyed or captured about 1,500 blockade runners over the course of the war.