In the United States, the President is not elected directly by popular vote, but by electors chosen by each state, which can sometimes produce a different outcome from the popular vote. Use with the [united-states] tag
In the united-states, the President is chosen by electors from each state. Electors are typically awarded in a winner-take-all popular vote within that state, although some states (like Maine) have different rules for how they are awarded (in other words there is no mandate for the winner-take-all method).
This process is often criticized because the President may be elected without winning the popular vote. This has most recently happened in the 2000 election (George W. Bush won narrowly in several states but lost the popular vote by about 500,000) and 2016 (Donald Trump lost the popular vote by about 3M).
