Electoral vote vs. the popular vote: explained | Just The FAQs

In both President Trump's and President George W. Bush's elections, they won the electoral vote, but not the popular vote. How does the electoral college work? And why do we have it?

Donald Trump amassed 101 Electoral College votes in states where he failed to win 50% of the popular vote. In each of these states, more voters voted for other candidates than for Trump, yet he received all the Electoral College votes. This windfall amounted to one-third of his total (304). Without it, he would have fallen 67 short of the 270 required to prevail.

Despite everything said about the 2016 election, insufficient attention has been paid to this basic fact. It means that while Trump technically achieved an Electoral College victory, he did so without genuinely receiving the support of the electorates in the states responsible for his Electoral College win. That is the opposite of what the architects of the Electoral College had in mind.

» USA TODAY delivers current local and national news, sports, entertainment, finance, technology, and more through award-winning journalism, photos, videos and VR.

#ElectoralCollege #2020Election #PopularVote

[im.caylaaa]

i still dont know what the heck a electoral vote is bruh

[foursix]

Bru what the point in voting when the American people don’t even really vote for their president

[amcheeze]

This... didn't explain much... the name of the video is a lie...

[niltomega]

It really doesn't matter because nothing is going to change. Getting rid of the Electoral College would require 2/3 majority vote in Congress and 3/4 of the states to all agree to be rid of it. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever going to happen

[Neceros]

ONE PERSON. ONE VOTE. ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

[Elsanta]

Did not understand shit..but presidency should be won by popular vote..we the ppl

[lolalolalola]

The rest of the world wondering wtf this is

[nupurgupta]

Iam from India🇮🇳, even I have to learn these for my exams. This shows how significant USA is.

[locust]

Ideally, the Electoral College should be eliminated and all fifty states should agree on the same close margin percentage for authorising a recount in any given state.

[Jordan-bgxc]

Okay I see now I thought the people who make the electoral votes could just vote for whoever they wanted this clears things up a bit more

[Roberto_Garcia_]

I was never asked if I approved or disapproved of having my vote counted in an electorial vote count in the state I lived in: At any time was I every allowed to vote for or against. So popular vote is the choice, regardless of how the politician feels because " WE THE PEOPLE, " have the right not their choice. They (the politician) must vote as all of each and every United States of North American citizen States with their vote of confidence. Not the choice of the elite choice.

[clickbisi]

Wait so doesn’t the electoral college fall victim to the same flaw it’s designed to resolve? Because smaller states have fewer electors and fewer electoral votes 🙃🙃

[Craigalicioususa]

The electoral college is the greatest election system ever created, and that being said, it's not perfect still, but it's the best ever created in all of history.

[dasikakn]

NUmber of EC votes are the same number of congressional reps, and Congressional districts are supposed to be assigned based on how many people live in a place (ie Population density). So theoretically, there should not be a disparity between popular vote and EC votes. Such a wide gap occurred last time because of the “winner takes all” situation ie. The vote was split very close in several states which caused almost half the votes in those states to apply to the party they didn’t vote for. So The culprit is not EC. The culprit is the “winner takes all” condition. That’s what should be modified.

[CharlieRasch]

I love how they forget to add that the Federal government represent the "states." Our federal government is similarly setup like the EU. Even in the EU, the people do not even get vote for the heads of the EU. But their governments representatives do. The whole point of the Federal system is for the states to have a vote in the Central government while each "STATE" has their independent bureaucracies. This allows states to become more autonomous, and why they there were so many restriction and limits on the central government. Why? because it allowed those state to govern base on the people locally dealing with local issues while the Central government supposedly deal with issues affecting the whole country while making sure each state had a voice and not be overrun by the tyrannical majority.

[zacharybrand]

We need to get rid of the Electoral College! This is ridiculous! The nationwide popular vote must be what decides who the next President of the United States of America 🇺🇸 is going to be!

[Ar_-cnom]

Then why have a popular vote if the electoral college determines the winner anyways ?

[joshfaye]

So why do all these celebrities and politicians tell the American people to vote so often? If you vote doesn’t count why would they want you to vote?

[TangoNevada]

If the Majority of people want vote one way, but the election goes the other way it's not a Democracy. I'm sorry for all the Giant States with tiny populations, but there is a reason why you have a low population and your representation should be equal to your population. If more people wanted it to be your way, they would move to you.

[thepez]

The EC does factor in population sizes in the electoral counts (bigger states get more) but was designed to give more diverse representation in our government and prevent a handful of overpopulated cities from controlling the fate of everyone. In this day and age of silo group think this is critical. A malevolent force could easily manipulate outcomes of centralized populations but harder to manipulate dispersed ones (you can fool some folks all of the time type thing.). It is also a recognition that we are a united STATES where all states deserve a voice at the table.