To someone unfamiliar with the U.S. political system , it might be puzzle that Donald J. Trump was elect U.S. president in 2016 , even though he gotalmost 2.9 million few votesthan the losing nominee , Hillary Clinton . Nevertheless , Trump took over the White House . That ’s because presidential election are determine not by direct popular right to vote , but by a process called the Electoral College , in which each state gets a portion of the Carry Nation ’s 535 electoral votes , establish on its population . That intend that a campaigner who torment up victories by impressive margins in some of the most populous Department of State , as Clinton did , can still turn a loss if an opponent gain ground enough land , even if they do n’t cumulatively have as many voters .
Unlike , say , hip - hops music or cheeseburger , theElectoral Collegeis an American tradition that has n’t been thirstily copy by the ease of the macrocosm . That ’s not to say that other res publica do n’t have their own interlingual rendition of an electoral college . At least 10 other land actually do , but they do n’t serve in quite the same way that the U.S. system of rules does , and they ’re sometimes used to select legislators rather than presidents . Here ’s a summing up on how electoral college operate in those nation , according to the CIA World Factbook .
to boot , some other countries — Botswana , Micronesia , the Marshall Islands , Nauru , South Africa and Suriname — but allow their national assemblies to piece their Chief Executive . But in 65 of the world ’s 125 democracies , the president — or the equivalent office — is flat elected by voters , according to thePew Research Center , which notes that " no other popular nation fills its top job quite the means the U.S. does , and only a handful are even similar . "
There ’s a reason for that . " The U.S. Electoral College is such a departure from the canonic tenets of democracy that it is not surprising other democratic body politic have not borrow it,“George C. Edwards III , a University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University and author of the 2005 book , " Why the Electoral College is spoiled for America , " says in an email .
" We have it because of a peculiar set of circumstances , in which some delegate to the constitutional convention did not trust the the great unwashed , some thought information was too limited , some wanted go-between ( electors ) between the people and the selection of the chair , some feared the authenticity of an elected executive , some were concerned about slavery and some had yet other motivating , " Edwards explains . " None of these apply in other nations in the modernistic macrocosm — and none are applicable to 21st century America . "
But even though the U.S. Electoral College has n’t been imitate , it ’s potential to cover as an anachronic vestige of an earlier political environment .
That ’s because ordain a constitutional amendment to abolish it " would be next to unimaginable for the very reason that got it in there in the first place : the unreasonable and undemocratic power pay to low - population states,“Christopher Beem , a political science professor at the Pennsylvania State University , explains via email . And he suggests that even if the institution was abolish , other problems might result . " Just as a hardheaded matter , what would we do if the presidential election is national and as close as it was in 2000 and 2016 ? Think of the fiasco in Florida and then imagine that on a internal scale . "
