Did the electoral vote accurately reflect the popular vote?

Answer 1

This has happened 5 times of the 58 presidential elections:

Year: Electoral vote winner/Popular vote winner

1. 1824: John Quincy Adams/Andrew Jackson
2. 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes/Samuel J. Tilden
3. 1888: Benjamin Harrison/Grover Cleveland
4. 2000: George W. Bush/Al Gore *
5. 2016: Donald Trump/Hillary Clinton

Answer 2

Most often no, although the election outcome has almost always been the same.

Only in one recent election (2000) did the winner of the Electoral College not receive a majority of the popular vote. This had also occurred in 1888 and 1876.

Because of the state-by-state winner-take-all electoral votes laws (i.e., awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state) in 48 states, a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide. This has occurred in 4 of the nation's 56 (1 in 14) presidential elections. Near misses are now becoming more common. A shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio in 2004 would have defeated President Bush despite his nationwide lead of 3,500,000 votes.

Answer 3

It is possible that for the U.S. as a whole a candidate could win the popular vote total but lose the electoral vote total. However, the electoral vote of every state accurately reflects the popular vote within that state. That is similar to the way we elect U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives. An individual is elected regardless of the candidate receives 100% of the votes or wins by 1 vote.

Answer 4

If you add together the available popular vote totals from all the states (which there is no legal or constitutional reason to do), in 54 of the 57 U.S. presidential elections to date (95%) the candidate with the highest total is the same as the candidate with the most electoral votes. In only 3 of the 57 elections (5%) was it another candidate....

• In 1876, 3.00% more of the voters preferred Samuel Tilden over Rutherford B. Hayes, but Gov. Hayes received 0.27% more of the electoral votes (this was the most controversial presidential election in U.S. history).
• In 1888, 0.83% more of the voters preferred Grover Cleveland over Benjamin Harrison, but Sen. Harrison received 16.21% more of the electoral votes.
• In 2000, 0.52% more of the voters preferred Al Gore over George W. Bush, but Gov. Bush received 0.93% more of the electoral votes.

Answer 5

Yes, the electors from each state vote the same as the popular vote in that state. It does not make any difference if the candidate won the state by 1 popular vote or 300,000 popular votes.

Answer 6

yep