Since most states (48 plus Washington, D.C.) award all of their electoral votes to the person who wins the statewide popular vote, it’s mathematically possible to win more electoral votes while still losing the popular vote. For example, if one candidate wins by large percentages in a handful of very populous states, for example, they’ll probably win the popular vote. But if their opponent wins a bunch of smaller states by tight margins, he or she could still win the Electoral College. That’s basically what happened in 2016. (History.com)
THUS we were stuck with, George W. Bush (2000) and Donald Trump (2016). Both men did not receive the majority of the popular vote, so, in reality, as I view it, both men represented a minority opinion of Americans. YET, because of the Electoral College. (The system calls for the creation, every four years, of a temporary group of electors, equal to the total number of representatives in Congress. Technically, it is these electors, and not the American people, who vote for the president. In modern elections, the first candidate to get 270 of the 538 total electoral votes wins the White House. (History.com)
SWING STATE: a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election. (Dictionary.com)
THUS one more example of how yours or my vote, living anywhere but within the boundaries of a Swing State, matter less, and becomes a bit more meaningless. The Electoral College became part of the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, when delegates assembled to devise something to replace the Articles of Confederation. (History.com)
As I view it, a law from 1787, the Electoral College, has outlived it relevancy, just has the 2nd Amendment. Muskets are not the same as Assault Weapons. Popular votes actually account for everyone who has voted, versus, how people voted in their states. Looming large on the 2024 horizon is, once more a chance for a loser, Trump, to become the winner!
