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2016 Electoral Map Results: What Were The Other Presidential Elections Where The Winner Of The Electoral Vote Differed Than The Winner Of The Popular Vote?

By Louis Babcock
Published on: 12:00 PST, Nov 27, 2016

The 2016 election to determine the President of the United States has become arguably the most divisive election in the history of the United States. Donald Trump has won enough Electoral Votes to be officially elected as the next President of the United States while Hillary Clinton won over two million more votes on the popular side of the election.

The popular vote does not matter in the United States when it comes to electing the President. In the United States, the Electoral College is what determines who wins the highest office that can be won in the United States. The election result in 2016 has Democrats calling for recounts in multiple states and for the abolishment of the Electoral College. The 2016 election is not the first time in history that the winner of the Electoral College has differed from the person who won the popular vote.

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According to FactCheck.Org, the first time in history where the winner of the Electoral College differed than the winner of the popular vote was in 1876. During the election of 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes amassed a total of 186 Electoral Votes while Samuel J. Tilden was able to win 185. On the popular side of the election results, Tilden beat Hayes by 264,292 votes. During the 1876 election, the United States consisted of 38 states.

Just 12 years later, Benjamin Harrison was elected President of the United States when he was able to win 233 Electoral Votes and his opponent, Grover Cleveland, was only able to win 168 Electoral Votes. In the popular vote, Cleveland beat Harrison by 100,456 votes. At the time of this election, the United States still consisted of 38 states.

It would be 112 years later that the United States would once again see an election for President of the United States where the winner of the popular vote was different than the winner of the Electoral College. In the year 2000, George Bush would win 271 Electoral Votes to Al Gore’s 266. In the popular vote, Al Gore had amassed a total of 50,996,582 votes which was 540,520 more than Bush’s 50,456,062.

The election in 2000 between Bush and Gore dragged on into the first couple weeks of December due to the votes in Florida being too close to call which triggered mandatory recounts. The chaos of the 2000 election would eventually find itself on the steps of the Supreme Court. When all was said and done, George Bush was officially declared the President of the United States.

In the previous three elections listed above, the difference in the popular vote was the largest in 2000 with around a half a million vote difference. Currently, the disparity is over two million votes which is what is giving a large amount of steam to the people who want to abolish the Electoral College.

The Electoral College does not officially vote until December 19. Some of the Electors can vote against the way that their state had determined on election night. These types of Electors are known as faithless Electors and at different times throughout history, some Electors have voted against the will of the people from their state.

Do you think the Electoral College will still give Trump the minimum number of 270 Electoral Votes that he needs to become the next President of the United States?

[Featured Image By Matt Rourke/AP Images]

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