The Daily Show - Making Sense of the Electoral College

The Daily Show - Making Sense of the Electoral College

It's still hard to get used to the fact

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that Donald Trump will be president,

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especially because he lost by two and a half million votes.

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But then, he won the electoral college,

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which is all that matters.

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It's almost like being in a relationship.

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You know how in relationships quality time matters more

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than the quantity of time.

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Like you'll get into fights like, "Why are you so angry?

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I hung out with you all weekend!"

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She'll be like, "Yeah, but you spent hours sleeping."

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-You're like, "It was night!" -(laughter)

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And then, all of a sudden, it doesn't count.

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And if you're like me, you probably thought

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that on election day

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Americans were going to the polls to elect a president.

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But if you did vote, your vote didn't go to Clinton or Trump

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or the best third-party candidate out there-- Harambe.

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He may be dead, my friends,

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but at least he knows where Aleppo is.

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When people voted, they were actually voting for electors

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who are basically a bunch

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of locally-appointed representatives

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who then vote on your behalf.

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Which, again, makes no sense to me.

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Do you understand how weird that is?

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That's like going to a deli,

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but for some reason, you can't order for yourself.

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You are just there at the counter like,

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"Hey, uh, can I have a sandwich?"

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And then there's some guy who's like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

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I got this. Hey, can he have a sandwich?"

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It's a bizarre twist on an already bizarre system

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because there are two ways to pick a president.

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There's giving it to the person with the most votes,

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-commonly known as democracy.

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And then, there's how America does it.

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We're the only democracy in the world

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that doesn't count the popular vote.

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This is the second time in 16 years

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that the person coming into The White House

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has lost the popular vote.

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MAN: Under the electoral college system,

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a candidate who wins the most votes

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gets all of that state's electoral votes.

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A candidate can win millions of individual votes

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in a state like Florida

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and still lose all that state's electoral votes

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because they lost the popular vote there.

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Now if that sounded confusing, that's because it is.

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The person with more votes should win.

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This is a weird system

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because no other country decides elections this way.

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It's even weird in America, you understand that.

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You don't elect mayors like this in America.

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You don't elect governors like this.

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-You don't even elect Idols like this. 

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The presidency is the only office, where, for some reason,

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you don't trust the popular vote.

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And by the way, this is not about Trump.

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You know the system is broken

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because the person with more votes lost

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in two of the last five elections.

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That's 40%. 40%.

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If a plumber told me

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that every time I flushed my toilets,

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there'd be a 40% chance (bleep) would spray back at me...

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...I'd be like, "Maybe I need a new toilet.”

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But America is like, "I've had this toilet for 200 years.

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I'll be fine. I'll be fine."

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-(imitates water whooshing) -"Trump! Trump!"

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-(laughter) -"Aah! Aah! That was horrible.

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-All right, next election. Aah." 

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And you know what makes the system even worse

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is that even if you didn't vote for the candidate,

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you still end up voting for the candidate.

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 In most states, whoever wins the most votes

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takes all the electoral votes

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in what's called "winner take all."

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In the vast majority of states, you just need to win by one vote

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to get all the electoral votes in the state.

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You see that? That makes so sense.

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The winner shouldn't get the loser's votes.

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Can you imagine how bad the Olympics would be

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if they gave the winner all the medals?

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That wouldn't be fun. That's not fair.

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Yeah, that's not fair.

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You love Usain, but that's not fair.

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What about the Russians, huh? What about the Russians?

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They took so many drugs to get there.

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-Come on, Usain! Come on! 

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"Winner take all" means that in big states,

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even if a second-place candidate gets millions of votes,

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the electoral college don't give a 

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So the nearly four million people

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who voted for Hillary in Texas,

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or the two and a half million who voted for Trump in New York,

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they just don't count.

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They're like lines of dialoguein a Fast and Furious movie.

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They're there, but they have no real value.

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But like it or hate it,

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the electoral college is here to stay.

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It's even written into the Constitution.