In 1824, Andrew Jackson won 44% of the popular vote in a 4-man race, and won the most Electoral College votes. John Quincy Adams won only 30% of the popular vote, and was second in the Electoral College vote. But Adams was elected president by the House of Representatives, since no candidate had won a majority of the Electoral College vote.

In both the 1876 and 1888 elections, the eventual Electoral College and presidential winner was also the popular vote loser. In 1876, the popular vote winner, Samuel Tilden, defeated Rutherford B. Hayes by 3% in the popular vote, but a commission awarded all disputed electoral votes to Hayes, giving him a one vote Electoral College victory. In 1888, President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote by just under 1% over Benjamin Harrison, but lost the Electoral College vote to Harrison decisively, and so the presidency.