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Hillary Clinton - 59,814,018
Donald Trump - 59,611,678
So no, the people didn't vote Trump in, he won based on Electoral College technicalities (a shame James Madison didn't get his wish in the Constitutional convention to get a popular vote). The people chose Hillary.
In the end this is heavily split however, revealing we really need to get better at compromise. Democrats lost via the legitimate election system, so they need to concede some things. Republicans now have a President that will go in losing the popular vote (like 2000 with George W Bush but even a bigger margin, so we've had our second Republican President in 16 years not elected by a Democracy) and can't make the argument more people chose him, so they will need to concede some things.
Truly a tiny margin, but a win nonetheless.
This brings up the same old tired argument. Should we get rid of the Electoral College and switch to a pure popular vote model? In principal, I don't have a problem with the idea. But this requires an Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Electoral College functions exactly as the founding fathers designed it to. The smaller states wanted to be sure that their voices weren't constantly drowned out and ignored in favor of the more populated states. At present, all states with six electors or fewer gain a clear over-representation advantage in every presidential election. That's a pretty large group:
Alaska
Hawaii
Nevada
Montana
Wyoming
Idaho
Utah
New Mexico
Kansas
Nebraska
South Dakota
North Dakota
Iowa
Arkansas
Mississippi
West Virginia
Delaware
Rhode Island
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine
In order to Amend the Constitution and abolish the Electoral College, you need 3/4 of the States to vote in favor. That means 38 of the 50. For starters, the 29 states not listed would all have to agree that the abolition of the Electoral College is critically important. Many of them, especially the smaller ones, might not be onboard. Then you have to convince at least 9 of the 21 states the I've listed to willingly make themselves less important, less significant and less powerful in all future presidential elections. Reality check: None of them will ever do that. Most of the remaining 29 states won't care enough anyways. Yes the principal is sound enough, but your asking human beings to intentionally make themselves less important than they are currently.
And that is why it's never going to happen.
Also worth noting: Hillary might have gotten the lion's share of the popular vote, but she did not get over the 50% majority mark. So in the end, the majority of voters did vote against her and not for her.
If we did elect by popular vote the strategies of the candidates would have been different. Los Angeles and New York City would have served as more than ATMs for the campaigns as candidates would have tried to siphon off that extra 1% in those big cities rather than trying to capture that extra 1% in Miami or Cleveland.
All this shows is that Hillary, the supposed consummate politician with a huge, purportedly competent machine behind her, ran an absolutely horrid campaign.
Seriously how could she miss so badly in Pennsylvania, Michigan and especially Florida ? Where will the public relations pros who knew just what to say to influence the vote, the Democratic volunteers getting out the millennial vote along with the supporting minorities. Hell she almost won that Reddest of Red states - Texas
....and not returning to Wisconsin at all after the convention...might have been one of the fatal campaign mistakes.
Quote:
In the end it was Trump who played the right tune to the people and proved the more savvy of public opinion, despite all the negative news stories surrounding his behavior.
I also think that trying to say that he has complete contempt (as some have said) for the details of what 'working people' do is silly. The POTUS elect's oldest son Don Jr. put his foot in his mouth a few times during the campaign, but I found one particular thing he said interesting....referring to himself (and at least Eric and Ivanka) "We are probably the only children of a billionaire who know how to operate heavy equipment (meaning re construction)" .
Why do these 2 different types of votes (electoral vs. popular) exist in the presidential election?
lots of other great replies so far to your question above ^^^^^ that each give great new information. I'll add another link that covers some things that may not have been covered yet....
....Why we have 435 of the 538 electors, why that number is currently 435, what that number has been in the past, and the 'nuts and bolts' of the number:
Yet all the Trump supporters would have blown a gasket if Trump had lost the Electoral Vote, yet won the popular vote. Trump would be calling the system rigged and refusing to concede. Though, since your guy won, you guys don't care about it being "rigged." Which isn't a surprise to anyone.
And if Trump had said anything about using the popular vote over the EC before the election, then the media and democrats everywhere would be saying Trump wants to change the system and doesn't believe in the process. Please. So much whining going around. It's ridiculous and I'm embarassed for some of my fellow millenials doing these things.
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lots of other great replies so far to your question above ^^^^^ that each give great new information. I'll add another link that covers some things that may not have been covered yet....
