the popular vote for president began being tracked with a few states participating in 1824.
the popular vote for president began being tracked with a few states participating in 1824.
when did the popular vote for president begin being tracked with a few states participating?
1824
since 1824, aside from the occasional "faithless elector", the popular vote determines the winner of a presidential election by determining the electoral vote, as each state or district's popular vote determines its electoral college vote. although the nationwide popular vote does not directly determine the winner of a presidential election, it does strongly correlate with who is the victor. in 53 of the 58 total elections held so far (about 91 percent), the winner of the national popular vote has also carried the electoral college vote. the winners of the nationwide popular vote and the electoral college vote differ only in close elections. in highly competitive elections, candidates focus on turning out their vote in the contested swing states critical to winning an electoral college majority, so they do not try to maximize their popular vote by real or fraudulent vote increases in one-party areas.
united states presidential election
in 1789, at-large popular vote, the winner-take-all method, began with pennsylvania and maryland; virginia and delaware used a district plan by popular vote, and in the five other states participating in the election (connecticut, georgia, maryland, new hampshire, new jersey, and south carolina), state legislatures chose. by 1800, virginia and rhode island voted at-large, kentucky, maryland, and north carolina voted popularly by district, and eleven states voted by state legislature. beginning in 1804 there was a definite trend towards the winner-take-all system for statewide popular vote.
united states electoral college