Has A Candidate Lost The Public Vote But Become President
Yes. In fact, two out of the last five elections were won by candidates who had fewer votes from the general public than their rivals.
It is possible for candidates to be the most popular candidate among voters nationally, but still fail to win enough states to gain 270 electoral votes.
In 2016, Donald Trump had almost three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, but won the presidency because the electoral college gave him a majority.
In 2000, George W Bush won with 271 electoral votes, although Democrat candidate Al Gore won the popular vote by more than half a million.
Only three other presidents have been elected without winning the popular vote, all of them in the 19th Century: John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B Hayes and Benjamin Harrison.
How Many Electoral College Votes Does Arizona Have
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The state of Arizona has 11 electoral votes in the Electoral College. As of February 2020, Donald Trump and Bill Weld are among the declared Republican candidates.
Secondly, how are Electoral College votes determined? Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegationtwo votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.
One may also ask, how many electoral votes does each state have?
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, and an absolute majority of at least 270 electoral votes is required to win the election. According to Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, each state legislature determines the manner by which its state’s electors are chosen.
How many votes did Trump get in Arizona?
2016 United States presidential election in Arizona
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Map 2 And Table 1: Current Party Control Of Us House Delegations By State
Notes: Table 1 is sorted from largest delegation to smallest . *Assumes Republicans hold the now-vacant but very heavily Republican PA-12 in a special election later this year. **North Carolina has a House vacancy stemming from the disputed and unresolved race in NC-9.
One could argue that the GOP edge largely comes from the smallest states, as the GOP holds a 5-2 edge among the seven states that only have a single, at-large House member. However, that edge disappears if one looks instead at the dozen states that have either one or two House members. Delegation control is split 6-6 among those states. That said, the GOP definitely benefits from a broader small-state advantage. Its four-delegation national edge comes entirely from the bare majority of states, 26, that have six House members or less. Republicans hold a 15-11 advantage in these states; the 24 largest states, those that have seven House members or more, are split 11-11 apiece, not including the two tied states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Who knows? Such a situation would be unprecedented in modern times. Realistically, though, its hard to imagine the Democrats taking a majority of the House delegations in the next election unless the overall election was a Democratic runaway, in which case there wouldnt be a tie in the Electoral College to worry about anyway.
Kyle Kondik is a Political Analyst at the;Center for Politics;at the University of Virginia and the Managing Editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball.
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Benjamin Harrison V Grover Cleveland
1888 was another election in which the winner of the popular vote did not become president.
Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland had won the popular vote by a margin of 0.8% . Despite this slim popular victory, Republican Benjamin Harrison won the Electoral College majority .
Harrison won the Electoral College without the popular vote by winning slim majorities in his winning states and suffering considerable losses in his losing states. Six southern states favored Cleveland by more than 65%.
The reason for this split was the issue of tariffs. The South strongly favored lowering of the tariff. The Republicans approved of high tariffs and were unpopular in the South. Tariff reform gave Cleveland immense support in the southern states, but the South alone was not enough to win the election.
When elected in 1884, Cleveland was the first Democrat elected since before the Civil War. He came back to challenge and defeat Harrison in 1892.
The Popular Vote On Election Day
Under the United States Constitution, the manner of choosing electors for the Electoral College is determined by each state’s legislature. Although each state designates electors by popular vote, other methods are allowed. For instance, instead of having a popular vote, a number of states used to select presidential electors by a direct vote of the state legislature itself.
However, federal law does specify that all electors must be selected on the same day, which is “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November,” i.e., a Tuesday no earlier than November;2 and no later than November;8. Today, the states and the District of Columbia each conduct their own popular elections on Election Day to help determine their respective slate of electors.
Generally, voters are required to vote on a ballot where they select the candidate of their choice. The presidential ballot is a vote “for the electors of a candidate” meaning the voter is not voting for the candidate, but endorsing a slate of electors pledged to vote for a specific presidential and vice presidential candidate.
Because U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College, U.S. citizens in those areas do not vote in the general election for president. Guam has held straw polls for president since the 1980 election to draw attention to this fact.
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Who Are These Electors
While the U.S. constitution offers little guidance on who can be an elector, it does contain strict regulations as to who does not qualify for the position. Article II, section 1, clause 2 provides that âno Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.â;
Choosing of the electors is a two-part process.;
The first part of the process, which varies from state to state, consists of statewide political parties selecting a slate of possible electors by either a nomination at a party convention or by a procedural vote from the partyâs central committee.;
Electors are often high-ranking members of either political party, chosen to honor their service to the government.
The second part of the process occurs during the statesâ general elections; when voters cast their ballots for president, they are also selecting the stateâs electors to represent their vote in the Electoral College.
Since electors are allocated to states based on the total population and amount of congressional districts, states have widely varying amounts of electoral voters.;
For example, the states with smaller populations such as Wyoming â the least populous state with just over half a million people, per 2019 estimates â have three electors each. California, the most heavily populated state with over 39 million people, also has the most electors in the country at 55.;
Third Parties And Independent Candidates
Third- parties and independent candidates, despite the obstacles discussed previously, have been a periodic feature of American politics. Often they have brought societal problems that the major parties had failed to confront to the forefront of public discourse and onto the governmental agenda. But most third parties have tended to flourish for a single election and then die, fade away or be absorbed into one of the major parties. Since the 1850s, only one new party, the Republican Party, has emerged to achieve major party status. In that instance, there was a compelling moral issue slavery dividing the nation. It provided the basis for candidate recruitment and voter mobilization.
There is evidence that third parties can have a major impact on election outcomes. For example, Theodore Roosevelts third-party candidacy in 1912 split the normal Republican vote and enabled Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected with less than a majority of the popular vote. In 1992, H. Ross Perots independent candidacy attracted voters who, in the main, had been voting Republican in the 1980s, and thereby contributed to the defeat of the incumbent Republican president, George H.W. Bush. In the extremely close 2000 contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, it is possible that had Green Party candidate Ralph Nader not been on the ballot in Florida, Gore might have won that states electoral votes and thereby the presidency.
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Appointment By State Legislature
In the earliest presidential elections, state legislative choice was the most common method of choosing electors. A majority of the state legislatures selected presidential electors in both 1792 and 1800 , and half of them did so in 1812. Even in the 1824 election, a quarter of state legislatures chose electors. Some state legislatures simply chose electors, while other states used a hybrid method in which state legislatures chose from a group of electors elected by popular vote. By 1828, with the rise of Jacksonian democracy, only Delaware and South Carolina used legislative choice. Delaware ended its practice the following election , while South Carolina continued using the method until it seceded from the Union in December 1860. South Carolina used the popular vote for the first time in the 1868 election.
Excluding South Carolina, legislative appointment was used in only four situations after 1832:
Legislative appointment was brandished as a possibility in the 2000 election. Had the recount continued, the Florida legislature was prepared to appoint the Republican slate of electors to avoid missing the federal safe-harbor deadline for choosing electors.
What Are The Battlegrounds For The 2020 Election
Its widely agreed that the key swing states are as follows; but there is some variation between commentators and pollsters.
Florida
- Electoral College votes: 29
- Latest poll: 3.3pp in favour of Democrats
Florida could go either way this year, in 2008 and 2012 it voted Obama and the Democrats in, but in 2016 Trump won Florida by 1.2pp. It has a diverse population with a conservative stronghold, and is difficult to predict but possibly the most important barometer of the whole country.
Pennsylvania
- Electoral College votes: 20
- Latest poll: 6.4pp in favour of Democrats
In 2016 Trump won by 0.7pp, and it has been a key pawn this year relating to the argument on fracking in particular.If Biden can boost turnout in the liberal cities to balance Trumps rural base, he could swing the state this year.
Ohio
- Electoral College votes: 18
- Latest poll: 2.0pp in favour of Republicans
Trump won Ohio in 2016 by a landslide of 8.1pp, and Bidens only chance this year is to seriously motivate black voters.
Michigan
- Electoral College votes: 16
- Latest poll: 7.9pp in favour of Democrats
In 2016 Trump won Michigan by the thinnest hairs breadth. But, having voted for Obama twice, Biden is hopeful he can claw the rust belt state back to blue.
North Carolina
- Electoral College votes: 15
- Latest poll: 4.1pp in favour of Democrats
Arizona
- Electoral College votes: 11
- Latest poll: 3.3pp in favour of Democrats
Wisconsin
- Electoral College votes: 10
- Latest poll: 7.3pp in favour of Democrats
Iowa
Georgia
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Current Electoral Vote Distribution
Electoral votes allocations for the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.Triangular markers (| H | Hybrid system |
Before the advent of the “short ballot” in the early 20th century the most common means of electing the presidential electors was through the general ticket. The general ticket is quite similar to the current system and is often confused with it. In the general ticket, voters cast ballots for individuals running for presidential elector . In the general ticket, the state canvass would report the number of votes cast for each candidate for elector, a complicated process in states like New York with multiple positions to fill. Both the general ticket and the short ballot are often considered at-large or winner-takes-all voting. The short ballot was adopted by the various states at different times; it was adopted for use by North Carolina and Ohio in 1932. Alabama was still using the general ticket as late as 1960 and was one of the last states to switch to the short ballot.
So Who Are Americans Voting For
When Americans go to the polls in presidential elections they’re actually voting for a group of officials who make up the electoral college.
The word “college” here simply refers to a group of people with a shared task. These people are electors and their job is to choose the president and vice-president.
The electoral college meets every four years, a few weeks after election day, to carry out that task.
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Four Features Of Our Anti
Broadly speaking, there are fourfeatures of our system of government that make our democracy less democratic, many of them working in interlocking ways. These features also happen to give the GOP a structural advantage.
1) The Senate is deeply unrepresentative of the country
According to 2018 Census Bureau estimates, more than half of the US population lives in just nine states. That means that much of the nation is represented by only 18 senators. Less than half of the population controls about 82 percent of the Senate.
Its going to get worse. By 2040, according to a University of Virginia analysis of census projections, half the population will live in eight states. About 70 percent of people will live in 16 states which means that 30 percent of the population will control 68 percent of the Senate.
Once all of its members are sworn in, Democrats and Republicans will each control an equal number of seats in the Senate, but the Democratic half will represent nearly 42 million more people than the Republican half. The 25 most populous states contain about 84 percent of the population, and Democrat senators have a 29-21 majority in those states. Republicans, meanwhile, have an identical 29-21 majority in the 25 least populous states.
There are over 20,000 more farms in California than there are in Nebraska. There are rural regions in large states. And there are some urbancenters in small states.
Hamiltons argument is refuted by three words: President Donald Trump.
How Many Electoral Votes Does It Take To Win
The important number is 270. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had three electors since 1961.
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Which Objections Are Recognized
For an objection to a state’s vote to be considered, it has to be a signed by at least one member of the House and one from the Senate.
An objection to a state’s entire slate of electors has been raised only once since the Electoral Count Act was enacted in 1887. That’s expected to happen again Wednesday a dozen Republican House members have said they plan to object to votes from swing states won by Biden, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced last week that he planned to join at least some of the challenges.
On Saturday, 11 more GOP senators said they would vote to sustain objections in six swing states unless there’s a 10-day audit to review votes that have already been certified after canvasses, audits and/or recounts. There’s been no movement toward such an audit.
Samuel Tilden V Rutherford B Hayes
One of the most controversial presidential elections was between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes.
Tilden, a Democrat, won the popular vote by nearly 250,000 votes, over 3%. On the night of the election, both candidates, as well as most of the national media, assumed Tilden was the winner. However, some Republicans were not willing to give up so easily.
The candidate’s electoral votes were close and the Republicans contested 20 of them, including 4 from Florida, 8 from Louisiana, 7 from South Carolina, and 1 from Oregon.
Out of these 20 electoral votes, Tilden only needed 1 to win the election. Hayes needed all 20.
Without any precedent for the many contested electoral votes, both parties agreed to set up a 15-person commission to study the contested votes and to impartially decide whom each vote should go to.
The commission was made up of five senators, five members of Congress, and five Supreme Court Justices. It was originally set up to include seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent who was expected to be unbiased and nonpartisan.
At this time, the Republicans controlled the Senate and the Democrats controlled the House. Both parties agreed that the findings of the commission would be upheld unless overruled by both the House and the Senate.
The Democrats threatened to filibuster but eventually agreed to a resolution that Hayes would withdraw federal troops from the South, ending reconstruction and the enforcement of equal voting rights for blacks.
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So Congress created a bipartisan Federal Electoral Commission composed of House representatives, senators and Supreme Court justices. The Commission voted to give all 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes, who won the election by the thinnest of margins: 185 to 184.
Why did the Commission decide to hand the election to Hayes, who had lost both the popular and electoral vote? Most historians believe there was a deal brokered between the two parties. The Democrats, whose stronghold was the South, agreed to let Hayes be president in return for the Republicans promising to pull all federal troops from former Confederate states. Thats one of the main reasons why Reconstruction was abandoned in 1877.
A portrait of President Benjamin Harrison, 1888. Courtesy Library of Congress.;
The 1888 race between incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland and Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison was riddled with corruption. Both parties accused the other of paying citizens to vote for their candidate. So-called floaters were voters with no party loyalty who could be sold to the highest bidder.
In Indiana, a letter surfaced that allegedly showed Republicans plotting to buy up voters and to disrupt the oppositions own bribery efforts. Meanwhile, Southern Democrats did everything in their power to suppress the Black vote, most of whom aligned with the Republicans, the party of Lincoln.
