Popular Vote Issues Surrounding The Recent Presidential Election 

November. 8, 2016 marked yet another historic day in the United States of America as Donald Trump defeated Hilary Clinton to become the 45th president. Trump who will be sworn into office in January. 20, 2017 was sure to lose in almost every mainstream projection. However, things changed when the shocking news revealed that he soundly defeated Clinton. Although Trump won through electoral colleges, he was defeated by Clinton winning in the Popular Vote with the final count placing Clinton 2 million votes in front of the controversial figure, and the votes are still counting.

Donald Trump has claimed the system is rigged, mentioning that he would win the vote if not for the millions of individuals who voted illegally. When we talk about the vote, we are simply talking about the popular vote.

What is the Popular Vote?

When we talk about the popular vote, it simply means the total of all voters from all states in America. The candidate who happens to get the most votes nationwide is said to have won the popular vote. Simply put, whoever gets the most votes wins. It is, however, clear to see that this voting system does not apply to the US election system. If the US election were based on the popular vote, Clinton would have won the election with a lead of over 64.4 million votes against the 62.3 million votes that Trump had.

Despite the continuous recount exercise, the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did not succeed in the 2016 election. The recent count showed that she won the popular vote easily, but she still lost to Donald Trump by a wide margin, all thanks to the Electoral College.

According to a Cook Political Report, Clinton has registered 64,654,483 total votes, compared to 62,418,820 for Trump. This represents a margin of 2,235,663 in the popular vote. Clinton amassed 48.2% of popular vote, while Trump had 46.5%. Despite these figures, Trump picked up wins in key states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida, garnering 306 Electoral College votes to Clinton’s 232.

Does The Popular Vote Affect The Outcome Of The US Election?

According to the US constitution, the popular vote doesn’t affect the outcome, and this has been evident in the past elections. Presidents are elected by electors and not the popular vote. This simply means that states in America are given a proportion of 538 electors according to their total population, with the votes then counted according to the Electoral College System.

So What Is The Electoral College System?

Candidates cannot become President by winning the most number of votes; the same applies to the recent presidential election that was held on November 8. This “most votes” simply means ‘the popular vote.’ Winning the presidency is only possible when more electoral college votes are gathered.

Each of the 50 states in America including Washington DC has a set number of electors which portrays their size. As we know, California is the most populated and the state has 55 electoral votes; this surpasses all other states. On the other hand, a state which might be geographically large but with a small population will have a lesser amount of electors. A good example is Montana; they have a population of over one million people with only three electors.

In essence, there are 538 electoral votes available and to win the Presidency candidates need to win 270 votes. So I guess we know how Trump made his way to the top.

Taking a look back, this would be the fifth time a presidential candidate has won the most votes but failed to win the election. The most recent are Democrat Al Gore whose supporters surpassed George W. Bush’s in 2000 but lost the electoral vote thanks to the highly-contested state of Florida. Low turnout of voters has always been the primary factor that leads to such electoral results and we believe that same factor has come into play in this year’s presidential election

So to win this year, president-elect, Donald Trump didn’t win the most votes, but he won the most votes in the places that matter.