When the President
Has Lost the Popular
Vote, but Won the
Electoral Vote
• 1824—Neither Andrew Jackson
nor John Q. Adams received the
131 votes needed to become President. Adams received the majority
of House votes after agreeing to
name Speaker of the House Henry
Clay (also a Presidential candidate
that year) as Secretary of State.
Jackson lost despite winning almost 45,000 more popular votes.
•;1876—One;of;the;most;disputed
campaigns in U.S. history, this
election pitted Samuel Tilden with
his 184 electoral votes against the
164 votes of Rutherford B. Hayes,
with neither achieving the necessary 185. Twenty votes were up
for dispute in four states. Instead
of the House voting, an Electoral
Commission was established, and
the Commission awarded the
votes to Hayes, giving him enough
votes to become President. Nationally, Hayes had 264,000 fewer
votes than Tilden.
•;1888—President;Grover;Cleveland
lost his reelection campaign, receiving only 168 electoral votes,
while Benjamin Harrison received
an astounding 233 votes. However, President Cleveland had
over 100,000 more votes in the
popular count. In 1892, President
Cleveland got his revenge by beating President Harrison and being
reelected to the Presidency in the
only race to pit a former President
against a sitting President.
• 2000—After a long, bitter fight
over Florida’s 25 electoral votes,
which included a decision by the
Supreme Court, Republican Texas
Governor George W. Bush was
elected President with 271 votes,
beating Democratic Vice President Al Gore’s 266. This is despite
the fact that nationally, Vice President Gore received 500,000 more
votes than Governor Bush.
third-party candidate has won any electoral votes since George Wallace’s sweep
of five Southern states in 1968.
In the event of a tie or
if neither Presidential
candidate receives a
majority of the votes,
the decision falls to
Congress.
Those who are intent on changing the
Electoral College have proposed several
ideas, but three are most frequently debated. First is the idea to award all electoral
votes by Congressional district, with the
overall state winner receiving the two remaining state votes (Maine and Nebraska
already do this). The second proposal is
to split electoral votes proportionally by
popular vote within the state.
The last idea for reforming the system
is to just abolish it altogether and conduct
a direct vote by the people; whoever wins
the popular vote in the country would
become President. Right now states are
free to implement the first two ideas at
their discretion. Abolishing the process
completely would require amending the
Constitution.
Regardless, as a result of apathy, a lack of
a mobilized movement, or satisfaction with
the outcomes the system has resulted in, we
are unlikely to change the Electoral College
in the near future. Despite its complexity,
this uniquely American system of Presidential selection has been maintained for
two hundred years and is likely to remain
in effect for many more years.
There are any number of great websites that track the electoral count for
Presidential elections and show the final state-by-state vote count, including
270towin.com and elections.nytimes
.com/2012/electoral-map. These two
sites are reliable, nonpartisan sites that
enable users to manipulate the Electoral
College map, showing what would happen if candidates win different states.
A more detailed look at the steps of the
Presidential selection process, as well as
some interesting historical facts, can be
found at the National Archives site, www
. archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/ about.html.
As the United States elects its next
President, why not engage your students
in a study of our nation’s Electoral College? Consider getting involved in your
When the House of
Representatives Chose
the President
• 1800—Running mates Thomas
Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 Electoral votes, but the
electors had not specified who was
to be President and who was to be
Vice President. The House voted
for Jefferson by a vote of 10–4
and the Twelfth Amendment was
passed to prevent this from happening again.
• 1824—Neither Andrew Jackson
nor John Q. Adams received the
131 votes needed to become President. Although Jackson had more
electoral votes and won the popular vote, Adams received the majority of House votes after agreeing to name Speaker of the House
Henry Clay (also a Presidential
candidate that year) as Secretary
of State.
•;1876—One;of;the;most;disputed
campaigns in U.S. history, this
election pitted Samuel Tilden with
his 184 electoral votes against the
164 votes of Rutherford B. Hayes,
with neither achieving the necessary 185. Twenty votes were up
for dispute in four states. Instead
of the House voting, an Electoral
Commission was established, and
the Commission awarded the
votes to Hayes, giving him enough
votes to become President. The belief is that the Republican (Hayes)
was awarded the votes in exchange
for ending Reconstruction in the
South. This became known as the
Compromise of 1877.
political party to promote your candidate
of choice at the local and state level, and
. . . don’t forget to vote!
Bryan T. Calvin is Assistant Professor of
Government at the Northwest Campus of
Tarrant County College. He lives in Fort
Worth, Texas, with his wife Victoria and
their 2-year old daughter, Corinne. They
are members of Keller United Methodist
Church. He can be reached at btcalvin.com.
