Every election in our country is decided by popular vote with one jarring exception - selecting the president of the United States. For this arguably most important office, we use the Electoral College, where the winning candidate must amass at least 270 electors before being confirmed as president.

Five times in our history - including in 2016 - the candidate with the highest number of popular votes did not win the presidency. Hillary Clinton wound up with about 2.87 million more votes than Donald Trump, who became the 45th president by capturing 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.

There were seven “faithless” electors who chose to cast ballots for others rather than for whom they were pledged. Two pledged to Trump and five pledged to Clinton voted for other.

Going back to 1824, the first time the winner of the popular vote failed to become president, Andrew Jackson had 41.4% to John Quincy Adams’ 30.1%. Jackson also led in the Electoral College vote, 99-84, but neither had the required number to be elected outright, so the contest was thrown into the U.S. House of Representatives, as provided by the U.S. Constitution, and the House selected Adams.

In one of the nation’s most disputed elections (1876), Samuel Tilden had 51% of the popular vote to Rutherford B. Hayes’ 48%, but Hayes had one more electoral vote than Tilden and became president. Twenty electoral votes that had been in dispute were awarded to Hayes following a contentious court battle, and he became president.

(This is the presidential election that most scholars point to that could serve as a template as to what might occur in 2020 in a really close race.)

In 1888, incumbent Grover Cleveland had more popular votes than Benjamin Harrison, but Harrison had 233 Electoral College votes compared to 168 for Cleveland, so Harrison became president. Four years later, Cleveland beat Harrison, and became our only president with nonconsecutive terms.

That sets up the great trivia question: If Donald Trump is the 45th president of the United States, how many men have been president? The answer because of Grover Cleveland is 44.

Then there was the disputed election of 2000 where Democrat Al Gore had about 500,000 more popular votes than Republican George W. Bush, but Bush had the required number of electoral votes to become president - 271 to Gore’s 266, with one faithless elector abstaining.

Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the winner of the popular vote; however, Maine and Nebraska have a variation of “proportional representation.”

Electors, who are selected by the candidates’ political parties, will meet in mid-December at their respective state capitals to confirm their states’ Electoral College votes. Whoever comes out on top in Pennsylvania’s popular vote will pocket the state’s 20 electoral votes - one for each member of the U.S. House of Representatives and one for each U.S. senator. Since Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016, but just by about 44,000 votes out of some 6 million cast, all 20 electors were Republicans pledged to him.

Although no elector is required by federal law to honor a pledge, there have been very few occasions when an elector voted contrary to a pledge.

Each state’s electoral votes will be officially counted in a joint session after the new term of Congress begins in early January. Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate, will preside over the count and announce the results. The president or president-elect will take the oath of office and will be sworn in on Jan. 20.

So why are we still sticking with this archaic Electoral College rather than going to a straight popular vote as we do for virtually every other political contest? Some political science scholars believe that the framers of the Constitution chose the Electoral College to balance less populous with more populous states. The truth is that most of our fractious differences are between north and south and between coastal and interior populations, not between big and small.

One of the most popular notions is that when the Constitution was framed in 1787, a wide swath of the nation was illiterate and spread out, and communication was arduous and not very effective. As such, the theory goes, the founders believed that ordinary Americans would lack enough information and expertise to make an intelligent choice. Some argue that this is still true today.

The Electoral College is laid out in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. A glitch occurred in the election of 1800, which was then resolved with adoption of the 12th Amendment in 1804. This changed the original process that allowed for the second-place finisher to become vice president.

In the 1800 election, although electors were to cast separate votes for president and vice president with one elector casting a ballot for a third candidate or abstaining to prevent a tie, there was a mix-up, and it didn’t happen. The result was that Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, running on the same ticket, wound up with 73 electoral votes each.

Burr was clearly the vice presidential candidate, but after the election challenged Jefferson for the presidency. The Jefferson-Burr ticket defeated incumbent John Adams and his running mate, Charles Pinckney.

The disputed election was thrown into the House of Representatives, where Jefferson was chosen on the 36th ballot. Burr became vice president, and before his term ended killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com