Answer:
The citizen vote is not useless, but the electoral system affects it too much. Therefore, although I do not agree with the statement, some issues need to be clarified.
Given the federal character of the United States and its electoral system, the presidential vote is defined in an institution called the Electoral College, where the states have votes based on their representation in Congress.
Now, each state grants the totality of its votes to the winner (except Nebraska and Maine, which divide their votes), with which, for example, if in the popular vote of the state of Florida the result is from 50.5% to 49.5% in favor of the republicans, the 29 electoral votes will go to the republican party. Therefore, the popular vote is not faithfully reflected in the final result.
This situation has meant that on several occasions the president-elect has not been the most voted by the population, as happened in 2016 with Hillary Clinton, who despite having obtained more votes, lost to Donald Trump.
Therefore, the citizen vote is less important than it should be, because although it is important, the electoral mechanisms of the country take away its role.
This situation does not occur in the case of votes for Congress, where positions are defined through the popular vote, so in this case citizen participation becomes more important.
