popular vote

American  

[pop-yuh-ler voht] / ˈpɒp yə lər ˈvoʊt /

noun

1. the vote for a U.S. presidential candidate made by the qualified voters, as opposed to that made by the Electoral College.

2. the vote for a candidate, issue, etc., made by the qualified voters, as opposed to a vote made by elected representatives.

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Etymology

Origin of popular vote

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Compare meaning

How does popular-vote compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• electoral vs. popular vote
• popular vote vs. electoral vote

Example Sentences

Rob Jetten, a 38-year-old centrist, will have the first shot at forming a government after his D66 political party roughly tripled its number of seats in the House of Representatives and won a bigger share of the popular vote than Geert Wilders’s far-right Freedom Party, which prevailed in 2023.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the Buenos Aires election, the leading Peronist party, the Justicialists, won 47% of the popular vote.

From Barron's

In Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa—hailed by supporters as a war hero for helping end a decadeslong civil war—won re-election with nearly 60% of the popular vote.

From The Wall Street Journal

There was no direct popular vote.

From BBC

There was, to be sure, a boomlet for George Wallace, but his popular vote share in 1968 was only 13.5 percent.

From Salon