Electoral College? Most Americans favor letting popular vote determine president

Most Americans want to see the president elected by a nationwide popular vote and abolish the Electoral College.

But the popular vote idea is more popular among Democrats and independents than it is among Republicans.

showing 58% of Americans want to amend the Constitution to elect presidents based on the popular vote.

Over 80% of Democrats support a popular vote, as do 60% of independents.

Just 32% of Republicans support switching from the Electoral College to a popular vote.

Generally, the election winner captures both the popular vote and the electoral vote. But there are exceptions.

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to Donald Trump .

Gallup has asked this question since 2000, and Americans consistently favor the popular vote route. But it was close in late November 2016, when just 49% favored a popular vote to 47% for the Electoral College.

, the Legislative Affairs Program Director at George Washington University, last week in which he broke down the Electoral College.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are in a race for the 270 electoral votes needed to win this election.

"We are not democratic at the highest-level office in the land," Burgat said. "We go through a different route written within the Constitution, going all the way back to the founders, the framers, the fathers with the Electoral College."

There are 538 available electors.

"So, we think we're voting for president directly. We're not really doing that," Burgat said. "What we're doing is electing electors within our individual states to then go and vote for the president and vice president of our choosing."

The 538 is based on the number of senators and representatives each state has in Congress, plus representation for Washington, D.C.

California, which has the most people, also has the most electors at 54.

Montana, an example of a state with a small population, has just four electoral votes.

In most cases, a candidate will get all of a state's electors for winning that state's popular vote. Maine and Nebraska are exceptions to that winner-take-all formula.