text: One is Certainty of Outcome. A dispute over the outcome of an Electoral College vote is possible but it's less likely than a dispute over the popular vote. For example, Obama received 61.7 percent of the electoral vote compared to only 51.3 percent of the popular votes cast for him and Romney. A tie in the nationwide electoral vote is possible because the total number of votes, 538, is an even number, but it is highly unlikely. Second is Everyone's President. The Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have trans-regional appeal. The residents of the other regions are likely to feel disenfranchised-to feel that their votes do not count and that the new president will have no regard for their interests. Third is Swing States. The winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes induces the candidates-as we saw in 2012's election. Fourth is Big States. The Electoral College restores some of the weight in the political balance that large states lose by virtue of the mal-apportionment of the Senate decreed in the Constitution. Fifth is Avoid Run-off Elections. The Electoral College avoids the problem of elections in which no candidate recieves a majority of the votes cast. An example is Nixon in 1968 and Clinton in 1992. They both had only a 43 percent plurality of the popular votes.