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How did Donald Trump win the Electoral College in 2016 while Hillary Clinton won more popular votes?

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Alabama certificate showing the state's electors' votes — Electoral College A certificate from Alabama showing the signatures of the state's electors in 2000. The nine electors voted for George W. Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney.

Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election because the United States uses the Electoral College system to elect the president, rather than a direct national popular vote.12

Under this system, each state is allotted a specific number of electoral votes based on its total number of senators and representatives in Congress. In nearly all states, a "winner-take-all" method is used, meaning the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote receives all of that state's electoral votes. To win the presidency, a candidate must secure a majority of at least 270 out of the 538 total electoral votes.13

In 2016, although Hillary Clinton received more than 2.8 million more individual votes nationwide than Donald Trump, Trump won the electoral vote by a margin of 304 to 227. This occurred because Trump secured victories in a sufficient number of states—including critical Rust Belt states—to surpass the 270-vote threshold, despite losing the total national popular vote.435