Why Did The Electoral College Lose The Popular Vote?

The Constitution specifies that the President of the United States is officially elected by the votes cast by a group of people known as the Electoral College, and not by the popular vote, which are the votes directly cast by each voter. When Americans vote in November and mark their choices for President and Vice President, these citizens are actually voting for electors—people who represent our choices in the Electoral College. Although every elected official in the United States, from school committee members to U.S. senators, is elected based on the popular vote, in order to be elected, the President and Vice President must receive a minimum of 270 votes from the Electoral College.

Although Jefferson had written in the Declaration of
Five Presidents to date have lost the popular vote but ended up winning the electoral college. This happened to John Quincy Adams (1824), Rutherford B. Hayes (1876), Benjamin Harrison (1888), George W. Bush (2000), and most recently, Donald Trump (2016). This brings up the question of to what extent has the Electoral College accurately represented the popular vote in American elections? The electoral college was originally created because most of the nation’s founders were actually rather afraid of democracy. In addition to Jefferson and Gerry, James Madison worried about what he called “factions,” which he defined as groups of citizens who have a common interest that would either violate the rights of other citizens or would harm the nation as a whole. Other members of the founding fathers agreed. James Madison said that southern states “could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes.” Madison was referring the infamous “three-fifths compromise,” which allowed the South to count each black slave as three-fifths of a person. Madison, and others who agreed, wanted to keep power within the white upper class. These men did not want the popular vote to be the deciding factor because after slaves were given the right to vote the tide could turn and shift balance of power within America. This is where the electoral college keeps all power in the white upper
Using electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard against uninformed or uneducated voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors most likely to possess the information necessary to make the best decision; to prevent states with larger populations from having a heavy influence; and to compromise between electing the president by popular vote and letting Congress choose the president. The Electoral College ensures that all parts of the country are involved in selecting the President of the United States. If the election solely used the popular vote then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily-populated areas or specific regions. To win the election, presidential candidates need electoral votes from multiple regions and therefore they build campaign platforms with a national focus. The Electoral College also makes sure that the president is elected. It ensures that there could never be a tie between the