I think you're missing the larger picture of accruing blocks over time, and deciding what is the "canonical" largest chain. A miner can choose which block to b

I think you're missing the larger picture of accruing blocks over time, and deciding what is the "canonical" largest chain. A miner can choose which block to build on. At any given moment Bitcoin can have several competing "in progress" forks. This is why most exchanges require... 7, I think?... blocks on top of yours to consider the transaction more or less confirmed. > And if it was an election, wouldn’t the result always be the same with largest miner always winning because they have most votes? Yes, this is a 51% attack in Bitcoin. If you have a majority of votes, you can disregard the current chain, fork from behind, and catch up.