The national popular vote is the total of all the votes cast for a candidate, and the candidate with the most votes is the winner. However, the nationwide popular vote does not determine the winner of the presidential election; the Electoral College does. The Electoral College and popular vote have elected different candidates in history. A nationwide popular vote may compensate for many of the Electoral College's major flaws.
One of the flaws of the Electoral College is that a candidate that wins the national popular vote can lose the overall election. This phenomenon has actually occurred in the past. The most recent occurrence was in the 2000 election. George Bush received 271 electoral votes but lost the nationwide popular vote by half a million votes to Al Gore, who received 266 electoral votes. In the article "Abolish the Electoral College," the author argues that "the system permits a candidate with fewer votes nationally to win the presidency by capturing narrow victories in the big states" ("Abolish," 2009). Larger states carry a tremendous amount of power in swaying the presidential election, since their large population allows them to receive a multitude of electoral votes. The Electoral College has been the basis for our presidential elections, but it may be time to update a moribund system.
Updates to a system can cause many problems. Supporters of the Electoral College do not want to change a system that has been operating for over two hundred years. The Electoral College was an idea that was feasible when first instituted, because communication was limited and national political parties had yet to be established. For the young nation, the Electoral College was a brilliant idea because it was a compromise between Congress choosing a president and the citizens voting in a president.
Now, however, the Electoral College does not seem like the best solution to elect the president, as it has become obsolete.