Voters in the US don’t directly elect the president. Sometimes that can undermine the popular will

The U.S. has a unique system for electing a president, the Electoral College. In modern times, it has put disproportionate voting power in the hands of a few states that are fairly evenly divided politically.

That forces campaigns to dedicate most of their money to the so-called battleground states. There are seven of them this year — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The lack of attention to other states leaves voters in much of the country feeling as if they and the issues they care about are being overlooked during the presidential contest.

What is the Electoral College?

American voters don’t choose their president directly through the popular vote. When they cast their ballot, they are technically voting for a slate of electors who will then vote for president and vice president on a specific day in December.

Nearly all states have laws binding electors to vote for the winner of their state’s popular vote, but that doesn’t mean the presidential candidate who gets the most Electoral College votes is the one favored by the majority of voters.

In two of the last six U.S. presidential elections, candidates have lost the nationwide popular vote but won the presidency. This includes former President Donald Trump, who lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by nearly 2.9 million but still won enough votes in the Electoral College to become president.

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