How many times in history has the President won the electoral college vote but lost the popular vote?

The correct answer is that a President has won the electoral college vote while losing the popular vote five times in U.S. history. This occurrence highlights a distinctive feature of the American electoral system, where the Electoral College can yield outcomes that do not align with the nationwide vote count.

The five instances where this has happened are:

1. John Quincy Adams in 1824

2. Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876

3. Benjamin Harrison in 1888

4. George W. Bush in 2000

5. Donald Trump in 2016

This reflects the nature of the Electoral College in which winning a majority of electoral votes is essential for securing the presidency, rather than simply accumulating the most popular votes nationwide. Each of these elections sparked significant discussion about the fairness and effectiveness of the Electoral College system, with critics arguing that it undermines the principle of one-person, one-vote.

The other choices do not accurately represent the number of instances when this phenomenon occurred, making the understanding of this aspect of electoral history essential for comprehending the electoral dynamics at play in U.S. presidential elections.