Has the presidential election in the United States ever been decided by popular vote?

[Ostrinski]

My grandfather justifies voting in a non swing state by saying that past elections have been decided by the pv but I can't find any information on it.

[Weezer]

As far as I know, in most elections, the victor wins both the popular vote and the greatest amount of electoral votes. It's never decided just by the popular vote. Of course some elections, like in 1824 and 2000, were decided by the electoral votes alone, as neither John Quincy Adams and George W. Bush won the popular vote. No US election has been decided by the popular vote alone.

[Lardlad95]

The Electoral College has always been the determining factor, except on those occasions when a candidate didn't get a majority of electors. Jefferson and John Quincy Adams were elected by the house. Rutherford B. Hayes got a plurality, but not a majority, though a congressional commission gave him enough votes to give him a majority in a fucked up deal that sold out Southern Blacks and ended reconstruction.

The EV is probably the last bastion of archaic states rights bullshit that this country still puts up with.

[Ostrinski]

What is a plurality in this context?

[Lardlad95]

My mistake, Tilden actually received a majority of the electoral votes, but 20 electoral votes were outstanding, and ultimately awarded to Hayes after a bitter legal dispute.

Been a while since high school US history. I'd conflated that election with the 1860 election where there were 4 candidates, although Lincoln received a majority in that election too.

[Jimmie Higgins]

People vote for electors, not for the President, so aside from some case where there was a close race and the popular vote then influenced the decision of representatives, courts, or electors, then I don't know how the popular vote could decide anything by itself.

[Ostrinski]

Can you or someone else explain to me more in depth how the election of creditors is translated from voting for presidential candidates? Thanks.

[Lev Bronsteinovich]

The election of creditors? Do you mean electors? As far as voters are concerned, they vote for a presidential candidate. In fact, the vote for "electors" that then vote for the candidate. Almost all states give the votes in a single bloc to one candidate. Maine and Nebraska actually apportion Electoral votes based on congressional districts. In the 2008 election I think Obama actually won a single EV from Nebraska. It is an absurd system that leads to votes in a small number of states deciding the election -- quite anti-democratic. Of course, the President of the US will always be the imperialist master in chief -- I presume that after the revolution the office will no longer exist.

[Ostrinski]

I meant electors

[Rafiq]

I know this post may be quite useless to you, however, whether or not presidents are voted by popular vote is irrelevant to the fact that his justification does not suffice. The populace does not simply vote out of their own free will, their will, their magnitude to make those types of decisions is something that is constrained by their social being and relations to the mode of production (Ideology, etc.).

[Ostrinski]

I know this post may be quite useless to you, however, whether or not presidents are voted by popular vote is irrelevant to the fact that his justification does not suffice. The populace does not simply vote out of their own free will, their will, their magnitude to make those types of decisions is something that is constrained by their social being and relations to the mode of production (Ideology, etc.).I agree as I'm assuming do most of us but this is just for the sake of debate.