Has a state electoral vote ever gone against the states poplar vote?

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1271122

2026-08-02 03:51

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Yes.

In early elections, there wasn't necessarily a "popular vote". Some states selected their electors based upon a vote in the state legislature. In those cases, I'm not sure if it make sense to say it "went against" the popular vote, but it also certainly was not the same as the popular vote, because there was no popular vote.

Also, there have been "faithless electors". These are electors who, basically, promised to vote for one candidate, and voted for another. This is a sort of "going against" the popular vote.

In a sense, in most states the electoral vote always "goes against" the popular vote in the sense that the popular vote might be split 55/45, but the electoral vote will be 100/0. Only a couple of states "split" the electoral vote.

It's arguable that we should abolish the electoral college and just use the popular vote directly to determine the President, but this would effectively weaken the major parties, so don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

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