US election process explained: Why Clinton lost despite winning popular votes in 2016?

The people of the United States are all set to choose their next president and decide between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. The American voters have started to their final vote on Tuesday, November 3 (local time), the result for which is expected to be announced by the end of this week. The result usually comes out by the end of the final voting day but this year a delay is likely as a record number of people have voted using the mail-in-ballots due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation in the country. 

US election: Voting process

Caucuses

The election season begins with primaries and caucuses, where each state selects a candidate and then people get to vote for them in order to nominate a candidate from either political party. The parties then hold nominating conventions, where they formally nominate their respective candidates for the election and vow to stand in support of him or her until the election process ends. During these conventions, the candidate also announces a running-mate as in 2020 Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential nominee. The ruling party if in power for only four years usually nominates the sitting president and vice-president as its candidates. 

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Electoral College

In the United States, the people elect the members of Congress but they do not elect the president and the vice-president directly. Instead, there is a system called the Electoral College, which consists of electors that each state gets based on the number of seats they have in the US Congress (House and Senate). For example, California, which elects the most number of Congress members, has 55 electors under its belt. After the voting process of the US presidential election ends, these electors get to cast their votes on the first Monday after the second Tuesday of December. The electors pledge to vote for the candidate that has received the most popular votes in their state. Congress then counts the Electoral College votes and whosoever wins a majority (270) of the 538 votes is elected president.

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How Hillary lost despite getting more popular votes in 2016?

The United States president is elected through the Electoral College, so it doesn't matter which candidate is leading in terms of popular vote percentage. In 2016, Hillary Clinton managed to get more popular votes overall, which is the number of people who voted for her across the country, however, she lost because, in key swing states like Florida, which has more electors than some of the others, people voted for Trump. So, the candidate who gets the most popular votes in a particular state earns all the electors as well. Trump won more states than Hillary in 2016 despite her winning more popular votes than him in the election.   

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Why some states have more representatives than others?

The US constitution provides for proportional representation and seats to each State in the US House of Representatives is given on the basis of population. East of the 50 states have been allotted 2 seats each in the upper house of the Congress, no matter how big or small the population is. The District of Columbia has three Electoral College votes despite not having any representation in the Senate as an amendment in the 1960s gave the people the right to vote and allowed it to have no more Electoral College votes than the least populated state. 

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