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The Votes That Really Count

By Martha Pickerill

1888 - Grover Cleveland had a popular-vote victory but lost in the Electoral College to Benjamin Harrison.

We all know how an election works, right? Voters vote, ballots are counted, and the candidate with the most votes wins. But last week everyone saw that a funny thing happens between the voting booth and the White House. It's called the Electoral College.

Each state has a certain number of electoral voters, based on its population. Big states like California have more electoral voters than less populated states like Alaska. There are 538 electoral voters, who are chosen by the political parties of each state.

Weeks after the election, Electoral College members cast the votes that actually decide who becomes President. This year they will vote on December 18. Generally, all of a state's electoral voters pick the candidate who won in their state on Election Day. So, even if Al Gore loses in Florida by just a few votes, George W. Bush gets all 25 of Florida's electoral votes. Under this winner-takes-all rule, a candidate can lose the popular vote nationally but take the White House by winning in enough big electoral states.

1876 - Rutherford B. Hayes won the presidency by one electoral vote, even though he lost the popular vote.

Who had this Idea?
Some of our Founding Fathers wanted Congress to choose the President. Others wanted voters to choose. The Electoral College is a compromise.

The system has caused some frustration over the years. In 1824, Andrew Jackson beat John Quincy Adams in both the popular vote and the electoral vote. But there were other candidates in that race, so no one got a majority of the electoral votes. In such a case, members of the House of Representatives cast the final vote. They chose Adams!

In 1876, Samuel Tilden beat Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote, but Hayes won by a single electoral vote. That earned him the nickname Ruther-fraud. And Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote to Grover Cleveland, 48% to 49%, in 1888. But the electoral vote gave Harrison the presidency.

Last week, Illinois Senator Richard Durbin called the system a "constitutional dinosaur." Many say the popular vote alone should decide elections. But unless the law changes, candidates must play by the rules, even when the results don't seem to reflect what most voters really want.

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