Trump is President even though more people voted for his opponent.
This has happened several times in U.S. history because the Electoral College — not the total number of votes cast — decides who will be President.
When the U.S. Constitution was framed, many compromises were allowed in order to get the various states to adopt it. One of the compromises is the Electoral College. It is very UNDEMOCRATIC because it gives states with small populations much more relative power than populous states. The Electoral College gives each state the number of votes that is the total of its U.S. Representatives and its U.S. Senators. While the number of Representatives is based on population, EVERY STATE HAS THE SAME NUMBER OF SENATORS (TWO), so this gives relatively more weight to states such as Wyoming, South Dakota, etc., (which tend to vote Republican) compared to heavily populated states (California, New York, etc.) that tend to vote Democratic. This bias has existed for many years and causes strong tendencies for Republicans to be elected President, even if most voters voted for the Democrats.
The remedy is NATIONAL PUBLIC VOTE instead of the Electoral College. Indeed, several states (including Washington State) have passed laws requiring their Electoral College members to vote for whichever candidate received the most votes.
See several articles about the Electoral College’s serious problems — and efforts to replace it with a National Public Vote:
This article was published on March 27, 2019:
Mark Phelan at “Progress America” (www.progressamerica.us) wrote this article:
Growing up, I heard democracy described as “one person one vote.” But it’s increasingly clear that the American electoral system has a long way to go before it lives up to that.
The Republican Party is building a self-reinforcing system of voter suppression in all three branches of the federal government, and in many state governments around the country. It shouldn’t be this way.
Since the year 2000, the Democratic candidate for President has received more votes than the Republican in four out of the five presidential elections. Yet the Republican candidate has been sworn in more often than not–and popular vote losers have named four of our nine Supreme Court Justices to lifetime appointments! This is not the will of the people.
By giving power to states, rather than voters, the American system of Presidential elections distorts our democracy. And Republicans, who realize this, are working to maintain this flawed system.
We need to end the electoral college, which gives outsize power to people who live in “swing states” at the expense of everyone else.
SIGN YOUR OWN NAME TO THIS PETITION.
In many ways, state borders are the original gerrymander, creating permanent barriers to the will of the people.
Sen. Brian Schatz just introduced a constitutional amendment that would abolish the Electoral College. Rep. Steve Cohen did the same in the House in early January. Democrats should push for an immediate vote and force Republicans to go on the record opposing it. At the same time, there are efforts across the country to get states to allocate their presidential electors based on the popular vote in each state, a process that would not require amending the Constitution.
Sen. Schatz’s amendment is important because it puts the Republicans on the record against one-person-one-vote–and for rigging presidential elections.
We need your support to unrig our Presidential elections.
A National Popular Vote would mean no President George W. Bush, no President Donald Trump. But it would also mean no Supreme Court Justices Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, or Kavanaugh.
On April 5, 2019, this good news arrived:
New Mexico became the 14th state to pledge its electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in future presidential elections. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact now represents 189 electoral votes. The states, however, will not adopt the new vote allocations until their combined electoral votes equal 270. CNN reported the news at this link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/04/politics/new-mexico-popular-vote/index.html?utm_source=WTF+Just+Happened+Today%3F&utm_campaign=b9628a9e6d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_05_10_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9813b73b1a-b9628a9e6d-176391685
This smart, insightful article posted on March 21, 2019, says abolishing the Electoral College would make Ranked-Choice Voting even more important:
Trump lies about Electoral College — and opposes national popular vote.
See this article from March 2019: https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/donald-trump-realizes-that-democracy-is-a-threat-to-republicans-and-his-reelection/
Good-Bye Electoral College? Popular Vote Movement Gaining Steam
See this article from Marcy 2019: https://www.salon.com/2019/03/14/good-bye-electoral-college-popular-vote-movement-gaining-steam_partner/
This article from February 14, 2019, explains how to replace the Electoral College with National Popular Vote by 2024:
For much more information see “National Popular Vote” at www.nationalpopularvote.com
That organization provided this background information:
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It would make every vote for President equal throughout the United States. It would guarantee that every voter in every state matters in every presidential election.
The shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from “winner-take-all” laws that have been enacted at the state level. These laws award 100% of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each state.
Because of these state winner-take-all laws, five of our 45 Presidents (including two of the last three) have come into office without having won the most popular votes nationwide.
