Letter: Correction on the popular vote

A recent letter to the editor claimed that if presidents were elected strictly on the basis of popular vote then Mitt Romney would have been president. This is not correct.

Quoting a Bloomberg report, “Barack Obama is the first president in more than five decades to win at least 51 percent of the national popular vote twice.”

Obama got 65.9 million votes — or 51.1 percent — against Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who got 60.9 million votes, or 47.2 percent of the total cast. Obama is the first president to achieve the 51 percent mark in two elections since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who did it in 1952 and 1956.

I would encourage your readers to check facts before proclaiming something that is not true.

This story was originally published November 21, 2016 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Letter: Correction on the popular vote."