Could Popular Vote Winner Lose the Election?
In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote by half a million votes but ultimately lost the electoral college after abitter dispute about Florida's 27 electoral votes.Could a split happen again? In much current polling, Mitt Romney has asmall lead in the national polls, but our electoral vote totals and those of others keeping track show President Obama leading in the electoral college. Four times in U.S. history the person with the most popular votes has lost the election and it could happen again. A lot depends on Ohio. If Obama can add its 18 electoral votes to the 242 electoral votes in the states that have voted Democratic in the past five presidential elections, he would have 260. Add to this New Mexico, which has stopped swinging, and he has 265. Under these conditions, it is hard to see how Romney could get to 270 electoral votes, no matter what the popular vote is. He would essentially have to win all the remaining swing states. He currently trails in Nevada, Colorado, and Iowa, and is tied in Virginia and New Hampshire. If there is another split between the popular vote and the electoral vote, there will be calls for a constitutional amendment abolishing the electoral college, but the small states that benefit from it are not likely to sign on and nothing will happen.
