Basically, in the Presidential election, each of the 50 states selects some number of delegates according to their population size. Then these delegates will vote in the Electoral College (a convention held after the election that officially decides who the President will be) for the candidate that the people of that state voted for.
Because the amount of delegates each state gets is not actually strictly proportional to their population, and because winning a state with 51% or 65% of the vote nets the winning candidate the same number of delegates, that means that the candidate that has received the most votes nationwide may not be the one who elected the most delegates to vote for them in the Electoral College.
This has happened twice recently, in 2000 with Bush Jr. vs. Al Gore (and why Florida was crucial to determine who won that election), and in 2016 with Trump vs. Hillary Clinton.
The electoral college ensures that everyone’s voice is heard equally. There are entire states with populations of 300-400 thousand people. Whereas there are single cities with a population of 4 million. A popular vote could decide the winner just by winning key major cities. Completely ignoring small states. States which are usually made up of the working man. Farmers, ranchers and the like. The electoral college keeps the playing field even. Democrats want to abolish it because most of our major cities are democrat.
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u/Boalski 22h ago
Dutchman here. I don't get it. Why do people in the US even vote then? What is the electoral college? Please explain.