Why did Clinton never win the presidency with a majority vote?

Question

Just wondering if most of you people knew that. Did you?

josefiend, then why did Bush get the majority vote, when there were more than 3 canidates?

Nick F. I said majority vote, not majority

Answer 1

There were three major candidates in those elections.

In 1992 and 1996 the independent and many moderates voted for Perot rather than Bush Sr or Dole.

Those were the same voters who votes for Bush Jr in 2000 and 2004.

The Democrats still believe they will get all Independent and moderate votes. They don't realize their as so far left the moderates they haven't forced out of the party (like Lieberman) have voluntarily defected.

Answer 2

In both of the elections that Clinton won, Ross Perot ran as a third party candidate. Perot gathered 19% of the vote in 1992, and 8% in 1996. Thus, Clinton only needed 40% to win.

Answer 3

I thought he was president 6 years ago ? How is this relevant.
Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 but still managed to steal the national election. At least the clenis was E L E C T E D.

Answer 4

but he won with a majority of electors, which were set up by our founding fathers just in case a really bad person was to try and take power- which they could then vote against what everyone voted for.

Answer 5

I knew. But CNN only reports that Bush won without a 'popular' vote.

Answer 6

He had more votes than the other guys . President William Jefferson Clinton has my respect for the good job he did as president.

Answer 7

yes he did, both times he had a majority of the votes

1992:

Clinton 43%
HW Bush 37.4%
Perot 18.9%

1996:

Clinton 49.2%
Dole 40.7%
Perot 8.4%

A clear majority both times.

Answer 8

The same reason Bush didn't!

Bush was only the 4th President in US history to lose the popular vote and win the election! Gore won the popular vote. You must be glad we aren't a democracy. If we were Gore would have won!

It is not unusual not to win the majority when you have more than 2 people on the Ballot!!

This election marked the fourth time in United States history, and the first time in over 100 years, that a candidate had won the Presidency while losing the nationwide popular vote. The last one was in 1888!!!!!!!!!


Yea Bush won by the Majority of the Electoral College, after his brother and the US Supreme Court, who the Bush's have appointed 4, gave Bush Florida, who is still screwed up!

Yes Bush won the Electoral College! BY 1 VOTE!

And the why! State senator Daryll Jones claimed that on the day of the election there had been an order to set up road blocks. These road blocks were set disproportionately in Democratic regions of the state. [4]
The actions of the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, who was in charge of state election procedures, also came under fire, due to her status as a Bush state campaign co-chairwoman, her involvement with the "scrub list", and her behavior during the recount crisis. In particular democracy advocates have taken issue with her antagonizing of Democratic lawyers, dispatching of a lawyer to Palm Beach county to convince the voting board of voting down a manual recount (despite thousands of protesters within the county including 12,000 with affidavits), and in particular her collaboration with Republican party advisers (at one point housing them).
There were a number of overseas ballots missing postmarks or filled out in such a way that they were invalid under Florida law. A poll worker filled out the missing information on some absentee ballot applications; the Democrats moved to have the returned ballots thrown out because of this. These disputes added to the mass of litigation between parties to influence the counting of ballots. The largest group of disputed overseas ballots were military ballots, which the Republicans argued to have accepted.
Some 179,855 ballots were not counted in the official tally. These were ballots which were mistakenly filled out, however, in predominantly white counties the voting machines (Accuvotes) would return the ballot and allow voters to try again, whereas in predominantly black counties the reject mechanisms were not enabled, thus giving voters only one chance to mark the ballot correctly.

And No Bush did NOT win the Majority of the votes, as counted!

And Bush didn't win Florida either!

Review of All Ballots Statewide (never undertaken)
• Standard as set by each county Canvassing Board during their survey Gore by 171
• Fully punched chads and limited marks on optical ballots Gore by 115
• Any dimples or optical mark Gore by 107
• One corner of chad detached or optical mark Gore by 60
Review of Limited Sets of Ballots (initiated but not completed)
• Gore request for recounts of all ballots in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia counties Bush by 225
• Florida Supreme Court of all undervotes statewide Bush by 430
• Florida Supreme Court as being implemented by the counties, some of whom refused and some counted overvotes as well as undervotes Bush by 493
Unofficial recount result when the Supreme Court stayed the recount
• CNN count Bush by 154
Certified Result (official final count)
• Recounts included from Volusia and Broward only Bush by 537
If all the diqualified Ballots would have been re-examined (Stopped by the Supreme Court) Gore would have won Florida!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2000#Controversy_in_Florida

Count Percentage

George W. Bush Republican Texas 50,460,110 47.9%

Al Gore Democratic Tennessee 51,003,926 48.4%

So Bush had no Majority!!

Answer 9

Clinton got 42.9% in 1992
49.2% in 1996, you are right
but ross perot killed bush in 92
and dole in 96

Answer 10

Great point. It is fair to say that Perot got Clinton elected.