ELECTORAL COLLEGE MATH: WHY 270 MATTERS MORE THAN POPULAR VOTE TOTALS The Electoral College requires 270 of 538 electoral votes to win the presidency—a threshold established by the 12th Amendment (1804) following the contested 1800 election between Jefferson and Burr. Since 1992, five U.S. presidents have won while losing the popular vote, with the two most recent cases (2000, 2016) occurring within 20 years, shifting how campaigns allocate resources and messaging. This structural reality means presidential strategy concentrates on 6-7 swing states containing roughly 80 million voters, while safe states' 150+ million voters receive minimal campaign attention. Understanding this geography explains why Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Arizona dominate election coverage while California and Texas campaigns remain skeletal—the math, not media bias, determines where democracy's actual persuasion happens.