Doesn’t the current Electoral College system nearly always elect the popular vote winner?
Some Electoral College defenders dismiss “wrong winners” (meaning elections where the national popular vote winner loses) as aberrations. But one out of every 12 presidential elections since the Civil War has experienced a wrong winner, and there were several additional close calls, including victories by Woodrow Wilson in 1916, Harry Truman in 1948, Jimmy Carter in 1976, and George Bush in 2004. Even Barack Obama’s victory by nine and a half million votes in 2008 would have been trumped by a shift of 527,864 (flipping 99 electoral votes) in the right combination of states. The problem of popular vote reversals is particularly serious in light of today’s closely divided electorate. American politics is in a period of narrow division between the major parties, with all six Presidential races since 1984 won by less than 10% of the popular vote in contrast to a majority of elections between 1952 and 1984 being won by more than 10%. Although two-thirds of our presidential elections since 1
