Unlike in many other democracies, the winner of the United States presidential election is not determined by the popular vote. Instead, it is decided by the Electoral College, a system in which U.S. states allot electoral votes based on the winner of the popular vote in the state. As a result of this system, the winner of the nationwide popular vote is not guaranteed to win the presidency.

In the majority of elections, the winner of the popular vote has also won the Electoral College; since the country’s founding, only five elections have seen the winner of the popular vote lose the Electoral College. However, two of those instances (2000 and 2016) occurred in the past 25 years, suggesting that such splits may be becoming more commonplace. This trend is of particular concern for the Democratic Party, which has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections, but has only won the Electoral College four times during that period.

The question will resolve positively if at least two major news outlets, such as AP or Reuters, or exit polls such as CBS or CNN, confirm that the winner of the electoral college has also won the popular vote.