More posse <| sep |> You have to play the game being played . If it ' s an electoral college system then you need to focus on that , which apparently Trump did . There is no proof that the Democrats would have won if we used a popular vote system , because presumably the Republicans would then play that game by focusing on turning out recordbreaking vote totals in Texas instead of basically ignoring it to focus on electoral college flipping far smaller states like Wisconsin . It would be a different strategy entirely for both sides and Hillary ' s popular vote win in 2016 does not mean the same would have happened if the popular vote system were in place and a completely different chess match were being played . I say this without disclosing which side I voted for , because I don ' t want to be involved in the typical internet backandforth over who is good or bad I just think it ' s silly to assume that we can even begin to know what the outcome of the popular vote would have been when both campaigns would have been focused on completely different strategies .