Final answer:
The Electoral College is a body of 538 electors that elects the U.S. President, balancing the power between states. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, while Donald Trump won the electoral vote in the 2016 election. Due to the winner-take-all system and the electoral distribution, a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the presidency.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Electoral College is a body of 538 electors that formally cast votes to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. It serves to balance the influence between smaller and larger states in presidential elections, rather than having the president elected solely by a nationwide popular vote. In the 2016 presidential election, Candidate A, Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote, while Candidate B, Donald Trump, won the electoral vote.
The main difference between the popular and electoral votes is that the popular vote reflects the direct input of all the voters in the country, while the electoral vote reflects the decision of electors appointed by each state. The candidate with a majority of electoral votes, at least 270 out of 538, is declared the winner. Therefore, Candidate B, Donald Trump, was declared the winner of the 2016 presidential election.
Maine's electoral votes are split between the two candidates because the state uses the congressional district method, where one electoral vote is allocated to the winner of each congressional district, and the statewide vote winner gets two additional electoral votes. If neither candidate gains a majority of the electoral vote, the election is decided by the House of Representatives. A candidate can win the popular vote yet lose the electoral vote due to the winner-take-all system used by most states, where the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state receives all of its Electoral College votes, which can lead to scenarios where the national popular vote winner is not the winner of the Electoral College.