Having the person who loses the popular vote win the presidency will seriously undermine the legitimacy of our elections. That could have happened even though Biden won the popular vote by 7,060,087 (and counting)-a margin even larger than the margins won by George W Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012. And, as our colleague Bill Galston has written, the Electoral College continues to be a “ ticking time bomb.” In the 2020 presidential election “a shift of just 45,000 votes in three states, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona … could have shattered Americans’ belief in the legitimacy of their political system” by creating a tie in the Electoral College and sending the election to the House of Representatives. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2,868,686 and yet lost the Electoral College vote: 304 for Trump and 227 for Clinton. In 2016, the results were even more dramatic. After a long battle in Florida Bush won the state narrowly, giving him an Electoral College victory of 271 to 266 over Al Gore. In 2000 Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote against Governor George W. However, in the five presidential elections of the 21 st century, two ended up with the winner of the popular vote losing the Electoral College. In the 20 th century there were 25 presidential elections and none of them resulted in an Electoral College winner who lost the popular vote. We will focus on elections in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. Three happened in the 19 th century none in the 20 th century and two in the 21 st century.
This has happened five times in American history.
As we all know only too well, in practice this archaic system means that the person who wins the most votes may not win the election. Only when they sign “the certificate of ascertainment” and the votes are tallied in the United States Congress is the presidential race officially over.
These Americans, chosen for loyalty to their political party, will vote for the presidential candidate who won their state’s popular vote. Next week five hundred and thirty-eight American citizens will travel to their state capitals and elect the president of the United States.
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