Electoral College: Why US presidents dont need most votes to win
Americas unique presidential voting system lets candidates win without getting most votes - it happened 5 times already. The system dates back to late 18th century and still affects modern elections
The US Electoral College system - created about 240 years ago at the Philadelphia Convention - keeps working in its strange way‚ letting presidents win without popular vote support
Back then‚ no country directly picked its leader; delegates didnt trust common people to make such choices. They made an odd system where citizens dont vote for president directly but pick electors instead (who later choose the winner)
Todayʼs Electoral College has 538 members - a president needs 270 to win. After census-2020 some states got different numbers: Texas gained 2 spots; Colorado Florida Montana North Carolina and Oregon got 1 each; while several states lost 1 spot each
- California
- Illinois
- Michigan
- New York
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
The process works like this: parties pick trusted electors who meet in state capitals mid-december; then on jan-6 congress counts votes. This system led to five presidents winning without most peoples support - most recently Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite getting 2.1% fewer votes
The jan-6 2021 events showed how important this process is - if mob stopped Mike Pence from counting votes (he was vice-president then) congress would vote by states which couldnt change the result anyway. Over 700 tries to change this system failed - from Alexander Hamiltonʼs attempt in early 1800s to late 1900s congress votes
