President-elect Donald Trump has claimed all along that this election is rigged, and in a way, he’s right. Though I wouldn’t call our system rigged, I do agree that Americans don’t have as much of a say as we tend to think we do, which leads to millennials distrusting the system. In fact, 40 percent of millennials feel the election is vulnerable to being fraudulently fixed, according to a Nov. 4 USAToday College article.

They feel this way not only because Trump and various new sources told them that the election is rigged, but because of certain issues which they know can occur with the voting process. The issues with which people have reported concern range from voter fraud and suppression up to the entire election being fixed by one candidate or another.

The belief that registered voters would be denied the right to vote was present in 12 percent of Trump supporters and 60 percent of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s supporters, according to a Rad Campaign and Lincoln Park Strategies poll. Voter suppression can be caused by race or gender, as well as many other factors. Regardless of the cause, preventing votes, though this is not generally done by the government itself but by those volunteering at polling places, is one way of rigging an election.

Another major factor contributing to the feeling of distrust is the Electoral College.

Many people don’t know that when they cast their vote, it’s not for the actual candidate, but for an electoral college member who is expected to vote in that candidate’s favor. That person’s vote is what actually gets counted, with the popular vote making the determination only if no candidate reaches 270 electoral votes.

The issues with members of the Electoral College making votes for us is that, even though they pledged to represent their party’s candidate, they are not bound by federal law. They can be punished by the state for voting outside of their party, but Congress still must accept their votes. This phenomenon of electors voting outside of their pledged party has occurred over 150 times to date, according to a Nov. 7 USAToday College article.

The Electoral College has more power than the popular vote. There have been four elections in U.S. history in which the candidate who lost the popular vote among the people still won the presidency, with the most recent, before Tuesday, being George W. Bush who lost the popular vote to Al Gore in 2000, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Though the people elected Gore, the Electoral College elected Bush—in this instance, our votes really don’t seem to have mattered.

Similarly, in this election, Clinton won the popular vote by 1 percent, yet Trump took the presidency based on electoral votes. Again, this has caused a feeling of distrust among Americans, especially millennials.

Scot Schraufnagel, department chair of the Department of Political Science, said that the Electoral College has proven the popular vote winner doesn’t always win the presidency.

“The Electoral College is all that matters, as we’ve learned for the second time in 16 years,” Schraufnagel said.

Many students were upset with Tuesday’s results, and petitions are circulating on Facebook calling for the elimination of the Electoral College.

“I don’t think [the election] is rigged, but I do believe that one side is more favored and that people’s votes can’t help against that,” said freshman sociology major Julian Ortega.

Millennials and the rest of America have realized that their votes have less power than they have been told, and that our system seems “rigged” as Trump has said.

We must fight if we want true power. Those who disagree with the outcome should protest and make their voices heard, as many are already doing around the country.