Explain the role of the electoral college in electing the us president, and compare two instances, one from the 19th century and from the 21st century, in which the president was elected despite a discrepancy between the popular vote results and the electoral college results.

The Electoral College is a process that takes place in the United States during federal elections. The role of this group of electors is to offer a compromise between the election of the president by Congress and the election of the president by popular vote. The Electoral College has 538 electors, and each state has the same number of electors as it has members in Congress (House of Representatives and Senate). Sometimes, presidents can win elections even if they do not have the popular vote, as long as they have more votes in the Electoral College.

One example from the 19th century was the election of Benjamin Harrison in 1888. Harrison defeated Cleveland, as the former won 233 votes in the Electoral College, as opposed to 168 won by Cleveland. However, Cleveland had nearly 91,000 more popular votes.

Another example was the election of Donald Trump. Trump was able to win 304 electoral votes in 2016, compared to Clinton's 227 votes. However, Clinton won 2.8 million more popular votes.

Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U. S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States. Each state has as many "electors" in the Electoral College as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors. When voters go to the polls in a Presidential election, they actually are voting for the slate of electors vowing to cast their ballots for that ticket in the Electoral College.