Majorities in the US Support Using the Popular Vote to Decide Presidents, Pew Poll Reveals

The majority of Americans support the use of the popular vote and not the Electoral College to elect a president, according to data published by the Pew Research Center, which conducted a survey from June 27 to July 4 of this year.

The Electoral College has played a significant role in several recent US elections, and the majority of Americans surveyed said they would welcome a change in the way the country's presidents are elected.

The current electoral system in the United States allows for the possibility that the winner of the popular vote may not obtain enough votes from the Electoral College to win the presidency .

This was the case in the 2000 and 2016 elections, which were won by George W. Bush and Donald Trump , respectively.

About 63% of Americans support the use of the popular vote, compared to 35% who would prefer to keep the electoral college system.

Popular vote approval rose from January 2021, when 55% of Americans said they supported the change, while 43% supported keeping the electoral college at that time.

Opinions about the systems varied considerably according to political party affiliation.

80% of Democrats approve of moving to a popular vote system , while 42% of Republicans support the measure. However, far more Republicans support using the popular vote system now than after the 2016 election, when support was 27%.

Younger adults are slightly more supportive of popular vote decision than older adults: Seven in ten Americans ages 18 to 29 support system change, compared to 56% of those 65 and older.

What is the Electoral College and how does it work?

In other US elections, candidates are directly elected by popular vote. But the president and vice president are not directly elected by the citizens. Instead, they are chosen by “electors” through a process called the Electoral College.

The process of using electors comes from the Constitution. It was a compromise established between choosing a popular vote of the citizens and a vote in Congress.

There are currently 538 electors, one for each US senator and representative plus three for Washington, DC, which gets three electoral votes in presidential elections even though it has no voting representation in Congress.

The number of electors has changed throughout history, as the number of elected members of Congress has changed with the expansion and population growth of the country.

How electors are chosen varies by state , but in general, state parties submit lists of elector names that include people with ties to those state parties and are selected at state party conventions or by the central committees of the party.

After a citizen casts their vote for president, that vote goes on a statewide count. In 48 states and Washington, DC, the winner gets all of the electoral votes in those states. Maine and Nebraska assign their constituents using a proportional system.

A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 voters, more than half of all voters in the US, to win the presidential election.

The Electoral College process is in the United States Constitution. A constitutional amendment would be needed to change the process.