Question: Has someone received a plurality of the vote yet lost in the electoral college?
Answer: The term plurality simply means having more votes than the other candidates. This has not happened, even though there have been 'faithless electors' in nine elections since 1796. However, as stated in the previous answer, Andrew Jackson lost in the House even though he had more popular votes. Also, Samuel J. Tilden did win the popular vote even though he lost the election in 1876. In this election, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon all reported two sets of returns. Congress set up a special 'electoral commission' that decided in favor of Tilden's opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes. Tilden accepted this unfair verdict for the good of the country in order to avert possible acts of violence.
Learn more about the electoral college:
- What is the electoral college?
- Why did the Founding Fathers create electors?
- How many total electoral votes are there?
- How many electoral votes does a candidate need to win?
- Which states have the most electoral votes?
- How many electors does each state have?
- What about Washington, D.C. and the electoral vote?
- What happens if there is a tie in the electoral college?
- Who are the electors?
- What procedure is followed for the electors to vote?
- Has a tie ever occurred in the electoral college? When?
- Why don't the candidates get a proportion of the electoral vote?
- If the state's winner chooses electors, won't the person with the most votes win?
- Why have elections when the state's winner will receive all the electoral votes?
- When do we finally have an official winner?
