Free Republic

Among the recent garbled effusions from today’s temporary president — cheer up; they are all temporary — was one that concerned something about which he might not have thought as deeply as the subject merits. During an episode of government of, by, and for “Fox & Friends,” he said: He won the 2016 election “easily” but wishes the electoral vote system were replaced by direct election of presidents by popular vote. He favors this “because” — if you were expecting him to offer reasons drawn from political philosophy or constitutional theory, grow up — “to me, it’s much easier to...

President Trump on Thursday argued that he'd rather see the presidential election be determined based on the popular vote than the current Electoral College system, claiming it would be "much easier to win." "They also like to always talk about [the] Electoral College. Well, it's an election based on the Electoral College. I would rather have a popular election, but it's a totally different campaign," Trump said during an interview with "Fox & Friends." "It's as though you're running — if you're a runner you're practicing for the 100-yard dash as opposed to the one mile," he continued. "The Electoral...

Republicans are hesitant to switch from our winner-take-all state laws allocating electors to the electoral college to using the National Popular Vote. The National Popular Vote Plan would award all of a state’s electors to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all 50 states. There is a fear that such a move will benefit Democrats, since Democrats won the popular vote even though they lost the elections in 2000 and 2016. But the truth is, Republicans are likely going to lose their ability to win the necessary swing state of Florida in the future, and they can...

Yeah, not to get your blood pressures to spike over the weekend, but some on the feminist Left just need to accept that 2016 happened and they lost. It doesn’t matter that Hillary Clinton got more popular votes either; that’s not how you win the presidency. We all know this. Now, as we enter the 2018 midterm season, we still have some who just can’t stand that Trump won, that he’s president, and that Hillary Clinton will never be president—ever. Enter Gloria Steinem who says she doesn’t think Trump is president because he lost by 10 million votes. No,...

In 1824, Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams were both members of the same political party. But in every other election with a discrepancy between the electoral and popular votes, the losing candidate has been the Democrat. Odd coincidence? Or is the Electoral College biased against the Democratic Party? Democratic President Barack Obama seemed to imply just that in a December 2016 press conference: “The Electoral College is a vestige,” he told reporters. “It’s a carry-over. … [T]here are some structures in our political system, as envisioned by the Founders, that sometimes are going to disadvantage Democrats.” It’s a funny...

A former foreign policy adviser to President Obama is warning there could be trouble if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chides President Trump over the fact that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. "God save us if Kim Jong Un makes a comment about Hillary's popular vote victory," Ben Rhodes wrote on Twitter Friday. Trump and North Korea's leader have been locked for months in a war of words and threats that has prompted concern among foreign leaders who fear Washington and Pyongyang may be hurtling toward a confrontation. Trump said last month...

plurality of Republicans say President Donald Trump received more of the popular vote in 2016 than his Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to a new Morning Consult/POLITICO poll, 47 percent of Republican voters said Trump outpaced Clinton — despite her nearly 2.9 million-vote advantage after all the states certified their election results.

Please remind people you encounter who say that Clinton won the popular vote that this is not true. Clinton DID NOT win the majority of the vote. The majority voted for Trump or a 3rd party candidate. She lost by 3.21 million votes overall. 51.2% of voters DID NOT VOTE FOR CLINTON. They voted for someone other than Clinton. So she did not win the popular vote.

California would step up efforts to bring about a system of electing U.S. presidents by popular vote instead of the electoral college under new legislation... The proposals follow Dec. 19 electoral college meetings that certified the Nov. 8 victory of Republican Donald Trump... It is the second time in 16 years that the candidate who won the popular vote nevertheless lost the presidency – Republican George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore in 2000 despite losing the popular vote by about 540,000 votes. State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, gives a thumbs up to a colleague in 2014. Hill is...

Yes, I know it’s Christmas, and if there’s one day where you should let politics go it’s today. But sometimes things happen that can’t go unremarked upon, no matter the day. Such has been a series of events involving supporters of Hillary Clinton. Yes, Clinton won the popular vote. Who cares? That was never, nor should it ever be, the measure that determines who is elected president. She knew it. Her supporters knew it. Her campaign knew it. They just chose not to campaign that way. Call it arrogance or ignorance, but Hillary spent more time in California, a state...

Clinton won California by 4.2 million and took New York by more than 1.6 million. The combined 5.8 million-vote advantage in just those two states was more than twice the size of her overall edge nationwide. When the dust settled, she lost the rest of the country by 3 million votes. BIG WIN: Donald Trump won the presidency with broad support of a majority of states in the all-important Electoral College that actually selects America's president and vice president SMALL COMFORT: Hillary Clinton collected more votes than Trump but did it by running up the score in California and New...

Final tally shows Trump lost popular vote by 2.8 million – but he BEAT Clinton by 3 million votes outside of California and New York Clinton won California by 4.2 million votes and New York by 1.6 million, running up the score in places where she would have won no matter what Outside of those two liberal states, Trump was 3 million votes ahead California alone accounted for more than Clinton's national popular-vote edge Newt Gingrich mocked: 'This is football season. A team can have more yards and lose the game. What matters is how many points you put on...

Democrats who are having trouble getting out of the first stage of grief — denial — aren't being helped by the fact that, now that all the votes are counted, Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has topped 2.8 million, giving her a 48% share of the vote compared with Trumps 46%. To those unschooled in how the United States selects presidents, this seems totally unfair. But look more closely at the numbers and you see that Clinton's advantage all but disappears. As we noted in this space earlier, while Clinton's overall margin looks large and impressive, it is due...

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Democrats who are having trouble getting out of the first stage of grief — denial — aren't being helped by the fact that, now that all the votes are counted, Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has topped 2.8 million, giving her a 48% share of the vote compared with Trumps 46%. To those unschooled in how the United States selects presidents, this seems totally unfair. But look more closely at the numbers and you see that Clinton's advantage all but disappears. As we noted in this space earlier, while Clinton's overall margin looks large and impressive, it is...

Because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College, there are now voices clamoring for America to abandon the Electoral College and become a pure democracy with the winner of the presidential election by popular vote. Not a good idea. In fact it is a very bad idea. Americans should remember that the United States is not a democracy — it is a federated form of government where the role of the federal government is limited to delegated powers by the Founders. This action was then solidified by the 10th Amendment that declares “The powers not delegated...

Politico reports a “fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote” Hillary Clinton spent millions of dollars to attract voters in Chicago and New Orleans — despite having their respective states locked up — to keep Donald Trump from winning the popular vote, according to Politico. Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere published a lengthy piece on Wednesday titled, “How Clinton lost Michigan – and blew the election,” that details how the Clinton campaign ignored the crucial battleground state of Michigan and focused on states that didn’t have a chance of impacting the Electoral College over fears that...

The next time any liberal wants to try and stick it to you by saying "Trump lost the popular vote" remind them gay marriage lost the popular vote by a wide margin of more than 2-to-1 when on the state ballots and needed activist judges who legislate from the bench to be forced through!!!

Hillary won a plurality, nothing more, but lost the election. That's the way it is. I am quite fascinated with the obsession the Left currently has with the popular vote for President. As usual this is a matter of expediency, desperation to get their own way given the results of the election, and the usual public deception for how our system actually works. There certainly isn’t a shred of principle involved. So let’s investigate this a bit. We are a Republic, thank God, not a Democracy, so the popular vote is irrelevant to presidential elections. It simply doesn’t matter, it...

After complaining for months that our electoral process takes too long, now some commentators apparently want it to take even longer. Lawrence Lessig has written an article for The Washington Post saying that members of the Electoral College should ignore what they were actually elected to do, and should take it upon themselves to give the presidency to Hillary Clinton. His argument is that since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, she is the “people’s choice.” Other commentators have made similar claims, and given the general angst and unhappiness that fills so much of the commentariat these days, we can...