What does popular vote mean

And in , incumbent President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote against Benjamin Harrison but lost two states by less than 1 percent — and consequently, the Electoral College. We will likely see more failures of the Electoral College system in the future.

The Electoral College system effectively marginalizes the tens of millions of voters living in solidly red and blue states. Public awareness of this fact also potentially lowers voter turnout. During the presidential race, two-thirds of of the general-election campaign events took place in just 6 states Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Michigan , according to National Popular Vote , an organization that advocates for the compact.

Small states were largely ignored — as were the populous states of New York, Texas, and California, which were viewed as reliably red or blue. The general election saw a similar trend , despite the impact of the Covid pandemic on physical campaign events.

With the NPV, every vote would have equal weight, giving campaigns the incentive to engage with voters in every state. The addition of four states in a single year was a big win for the NPV.

Additionally, when Colorado voters took NPV to the ballot in , they confirmed the popular support for the measure. But it also suffered some legislative defeats during the session. Nevada Gov. NPV advocates believe that those last 74 electoral votes are now within reach and hope to secure a national popular vote for the presidential election. Gauging from the recent momentum, lawmakers across the country have come to see that it might finally be possible to reform the outmoded, undemocratic Electoral College.

Our democracy will benefit if components from debates to primaries to conventions are given much-needed updates. Bush was declared the winner despite receiving fewer popular votes overall than his opponent , Al Gore. If someone wins the popular vote in an election , they get the most single votes. He won the Electoral College but he did not win the popular vote.

He claimed that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote. Browse popular music. Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes. Image credits. Word of the Day kind-hearted. About this. In , for example, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won Put another way, the share of the popular vote refers to the number of votes won across the country, but depending on the electoral system in place, this may or may not correspond to the number of seats won.

Google Analytics tracking has been deactivated for this browser on this website. Regardless of how much one candidate wins the popular margin, all 20 electoral votes will go to that one candidate.

In Nebraska and Maine, Electoral College votes are assigned in part by the presidential results in each of their congressional districts. For example: Nebraska has 5 electoral votes. If no candidate receives Electoral College votes, the president is then selected by the House of Representatives. Each state gets a single vote. Join the anti-corruption movement Join us Thank you for joining The Movement! Now, the most important thing you can do is invite others to join, too.

When we receive the results from any presidential election, we are give two different results: the Electoral College and the popular vote. The popular vote is simply which candidate has received the most total votes.

The short answer is: no, not right now. However, many states are taking measures towards electing the president by a popular vote.