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Many US elections, emphatically including those of Presidential electors, are done by plurality rule, so you don't need a majority to start with -- which is floor(votes×50%)+1, not 51%. With the structure of the EC, you can, therefore, win with a minority of votes in states with a minority of the population.

> Companies are more directly accountable through $$$

What's direct about that? Companies are directly accountable to their shareholders, accountable to the general population via the government, and very indirectly accountable to their customers.

In the UK, our current Conservative government "won" a majority (and hence control of the government) with only 35% of the popular vote. It's the smallest mandate a UK government has had in modern history.