Question

In November (and, technically, December) of 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, regardless of the fact that Hillary Clinton won nearly 3 million more votes. This reminded many Americans that the president is elected by the Electoral College, not by the public; thus, rather than DIRECTLY electing the president, we (At best) indirectly elect them. What I ask you is this: in terms of the principal-agent relationship this establishes, does this give the public sufficient control over the presidency? Why, or why not?

Answer 1

Many Americans ask why, after the 2016 election, Donald Trump became president, because Hillary Clinton received more votes overall.

Currently, in 2016, Clinton got as many votes as Barack Obama did in 2012. Hers, though, has been centralized in smaller nations, causing all the difference in the American political system.

We must go back to the formation of the United States in order to understand why Trump won.

What is the Electoral College?

In the United States, how many votes a presidential candidate receives in an election is decided by someone called the Electoral College.

For presidential candidates, each state has a number of votes loosely related to the population of the state. This number refers to the number of delegates and senators sent to Congress by the territory.

For example, there are 27 delegates in New York, the state where I reside, and hence 29 votes from the Electoral College. D.C. Washington. With three votes from the Electoral College, which does not have any members of Congress.

But the rules also specify that each species must have at least one delegate and that there can be only 435 House representatives. Few states have fewer senators per person than in other states because of the way those open seats are set up.

For example, approximately 746,415 individuals are served by each of the 53 representatives in the House of California. That number fell to 577,737 for their one representative in Wyoming.

This suggests that the mainstream national vote will be very different from the Electoral College vote, which goes to the candidate who received the most individual votes.

In the 2016 election, that's what happened. Significant parts of blue-state city-dwellers voted for Clinton, earning her the most votes nationwide.

But in states with lower numbers and an edge in the Electoral College, Trump has an edge. This is partly because all the electoral votes from the state are provided by 48 states and the District of Columbia to the candidate who receives the bulk of the votes. Just Maine and Nebraska do not follow this path to 'winner take all'.

Where did it come from?

The Electoral College belongs to the U.S. Constitution. The Founding Fathers worried in 1787 that individuals might elect a demagogue or someone who would cater to their feelings and encourage the formation and enforcement of laws founded on fear or anger. The founders believed that if they voted for someone unqualified, the electors in the Electoral College would actually be "unfaithful" to the electors.

In modern days, voters vote in November in all 50 states and those votes are transmitted to the electors. Electors are gathering in mid-December to cast an official presidential vote.

They nearly always hold to the ballots of the people, but every so often, unfaithful electors opt for another candidate. Electors, Republicans, and Democrats are normally selected by the party, although each state decides by itself if electors are selected.

Electors overwhelmingly voted for their states in the case of the 2016 election, making Trump president.