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Voices & Opinion

Déjà vu: What happens to America when one candidate wins the popular vote but not the Electoral College?

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If this November again one presidential candidate wins the popular voteÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”but the other the Electoral College and thus the US presidencyÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”the political damage would be ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œsubstantial,ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½� a group of political scientists from the Universities of Rochester, Chicago, Stanford, and Dartmouth College argue in a .

The , among them , a professor of political science at the University of Rochester and ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™97 (PhD) of Meliora Research, has banded together as , a nonpartisan watchdog group that regularly surveys experts and the public on the health of US democracy. The team discovered that, in particular, Democrats would find the process ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½œless legitimate.ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½�

In an analysis for the , the authors point to their , according to which Americans overwhelmingly embrace the principle that all votes should count equally. They write that for a candidate to win the most votes but go on to lose the electionÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”violates this principle.

Yet, in the last five presidential elections precisely this happened twice (Gore/Bush and Clinton/Trump). Analyses this summer by some political observers (for example, the and ) indicate that President Donald Trump may lose the popular vote to Democratic candidate Joe Biden but win the Electoral College.

Read more of in the Washington Post.