The Popular Vote: Thank God it doesn't matter. By Bruce Tarleton
Hillary Clinton received more individual votes that Donald Trump. By last count, she received 64,418,125 to Trump's 62,314,184. Percentage wise that puts Clinton at 48.1% to Trump's 46.5%. And the liberals are crying hard about this. Because, according to them, the nation chose Clinton, not Trump. They couldn't be more wrong.
Raw numbers, 133,900,673 ballots were cast in this election. Clinton's lead over Trump is 2,103,941. But let's look a state total for a second. Specifically, California.
In California, Clinton beat Trump by 3,829,202 votes. There are other states, like New York and New Jersey where her margin was more than a million votes. In no state did Trump beat Clinton by more than 1 million votes.
Thus, using basic math, if you take out California, Hillary's popular vote lead vanishes. The same thing happens if you take out New York and New Jersey.
Now think about that for a second. In a popular vote scenario, the winner of the election is determined by California. Or New York and New Jersey.
Let's break it down a little further. I'm sure you've seen this map:
Out of 3141 counties, Donald Trump won 3084. But this map doesn't show the whole picture. Lets look at this 3D map that shows a representation of the actual votes:
http://metrocosm.com/election-2016-map-3d/
My point is simple. By popular vote, a handful of less than 100 counties would determine the Presidency for the entire nation.
There is another point to make about the popular vote in this election. Almost everywhere in the US, where a democratic process invokes a popular vote to win an election, the candidate must win greater than 50% of the vote. Clinton has only won 48.1%. Not enough to break the threshold.
Another way to look at it, of the 133,900,673 votes cast, Clinton received 64,418,125. BUT, 69,482,548 people voted AGAINST her. The popular vote DID NOT ELECT Clinton.
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Hillary lost. The Supreme Court may be saved. Get over it.
Great seed. Thanks for the info.
Good article. Apparently many do not know how or why the EC was put in place by our country's founders. They were very forward seeing men who understood how to best resolve issues that could affect an election
Those maps sure are revealing.
Four states as in the comment down the page shows how 4 states control 56% of the Popular vote. I finally finished the comment. I accidentally pushed "Post Your Comment" when I was about halfway through it. A lot of work for nothing, isn't it?
I clicked on that link and this is what I got. Any idea why?
"You do not have the privileges to view this page"
says the same thing for me too.
It did me the same way as well, but it is the last comment on this article at this time. Just some data for the most part. The way I see it and I know I don't have all my facts the way they should be stated, but basically have the right idea, I think, this data can be used to justify why we have the Electoral College instead of who got the most votes.
Sorry I guess when you link on the same article it does that. I already see NWM has seen it.
By the way everyone gets a thumbs up from me on every comment I read. It's the only way I can keep up with what I've read without having to go through them looking for new comments I haven't seen before. Sometimes it's pretty hard giving that thumbs up on some of them though. LOL
One of the best examples I've seen. Makes the point the candidate is running to be the President of All of the United States of America, not the number of people who are in the United States of America.
Popular vote would be the same as winning the World Series by having the most runs during the season, not the number of games won.
Gee, another article about the electoral college. What a surprise.
When your candidate sucks dog dick and cannot be defended on his own merits, just keep everyone's attention diverted with pointless articles about the electoral vote for weeks on end.
if you believe that the election was decided on the merits than your issue is moot, Trump won, with a plurality of votes.
The merits of the candidates were roundly obfuscated and lied about by both sides. more one side than the other, but that is personal opinion.
As usual you are harping on your personal opinion which we all know by heart now, and find rather boring.
the real issue today as it seems to be is people thinking that they should win in simple majority.
a loosing position but it is the topic in general question at this time.
Sorry you feel we all need to be examining your personal opinions and we are mostly ignoring your egocentric self important view.
Your arguments about candidate qualifications are moot and almost irrelevant at this stage. besides neither candidate was especially qualified for the office in my opinion. and who is more qualified has been decided on election day.
The people have chosen, everything else is sour grapes John.
This is why people are ignoring you. your irrelevant to the current main topic of discussion and your droning is being tuned out.
Continue as you will, we all know you will, cause the only thing that is valid to you is your opinion.
But most of us find it lacking.
Mr Blowhard, aka Nowhere Man, stop trying to lecture people.
YOU don't know what plurality means and you claim to have worked in elections for 30 years?
Then you have to gall to pontificate about it?
Just stop.
if you believe that the election was decided on the merits than your issue is moot, Trump won, with a plurality of votes.
Trump does not have the plurality of votes, Hillary Clinton does.
Just stop it.
That's quite the "skyscraper" depicted in Cali ...
Yes it is!!!
No Presidential candidate tries to win the popular vote, pretending it has meaning is silly. The candidates deploy their time and resources to win the electoral college vote, that's the only vote count that matters.
Where are the top 4 states in population and how do they vote.
The number 1 state in population is California. California has supported only Democrat candidate in the Electoral College for President since 1992 for the last 24 years. California has 55 electoral votes. California had over 3 million more popular votes for the Democrat candidate over the Republican candidate each of the last 3 Presidential elections.
The number 2 state in population is Texas. Texas has supported only Republican candidates in the Electoral College for President since 1980 for the last 36 years. Texas has 38 electoral votes. Texas had over 800 thousand more popular votes for the Democrat candidate over the Republican candidate in 2016. The Republican candidate had 1.2 million in 2012 and 951 thousand in 2008 more popular votes than the Democrat candidate.
The number 3 state in population is New York. New York has supported only the Democrat candidate in the Electoral College for President since 1984 for the last 32 years. New York City hasn't supported a Republican for President since 1924. New York has 29 Electoral votes down from 36 in 1988. New York had 1.5 million to 2 million more popular votes for the Democrat candidate over the Republican candidate in 2016. The Democrat candidate had 2 million in 2012 and 2 million in 2008 more popular votes than the Democrat candidate.
The number 4 state in population is Florida. Florida has supported the Democrat Presidential candidate in the Electoral College since 2008 and 2012 until 2016 when the Republican candidate won the state in Electoral votes. Florida has become the number 1 swing state with the most Electoral votes since 1980 increasing Electoral votes from 10 in 1980 to 29 in 2016. Since 1980 there have been 14 Presidential elections and the state has supported the Democrats 5 times and the Republicans 9 times. Florida had around 112 thousand more popular votes for the Republican candidate over the Democratic candidate in 2016. The Democrat candidate had 74 thousand in 2012 and 236 thousand in 2008 more popular votes than the Republican candidate.
These 4 states, California, Texas, New York and Florida carry 56% of the Electoral votes to win the Presidency (55+38+29+29= 151 Electoral votes divided by 270 = 55.9%
States that voted Republican with less than 2 million total votes in their state:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming
19 states 19/51 or 37.2% of the states with less than 2 million total votes in their states voted Republican.
States that voted Democrat with less than 2 million total votes in their state:
Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont
11 states 11/51 or 21.5% of the states with less than 2 million total votes in their states voted Democrat.
States that voted Republican with between 2 and 3 million total votes in their state:
Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin
States that voted Democrat with between 2 and 3 million total votes in their state:
Maryland, Minnesota, Washington
States that voted Republican with between 3 and 4 million total votes in their state:
Georgia and Indiana
States that voted Democrat with between 3 and 4 million total votes in their state:
Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia
States that voted Republican with between 4 and 5 million total votes in their state:
Michigan, North Carolina
States that voted Democrat with between 4 and 5 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Republican with between 5 and 6 million total votes in their state:
Ohio and Pennsylvania
States that voted Democrat with between 5 and 6 million total votes in their state:
Illinois
States that voted Republican with between 6 and 7 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 6 and 7 million total votes in their state:
New York
States that voted Republican with between 7 and 8 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 7 and 8 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Republican with between 8 and 9 million total votes in their state:
Texas
States that voted Democrat with between 8 and 9 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Republican with between 9 and 10 million total votes in their state:
Florida
No states with over 10 million total votes in their state voted Republican
States that voted Democrat with between 9 and 10 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 10 and 11 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 11 and 12 million total votes in their state:
California
The will of the people doesn't matter anymore. I guess that's worth celebrating. To some people anyway. Fuck, I guess it never did
By the way...tell it to Sioux also....they'll want to celebrate it too...
It is possible to win a presidential election by winning only eleven states and disregarding the rest of the country. If one ticket were to take California (55 votes), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), and New Jersey (14) that ticket would have 270 votes, which would be enough to win.
It is also possible, in a two-candidate race, with equal voter turnout in every Congressional district and no faithless electors, a candidate could win the Electoral College while winning only about 22% of the nationwide popular vote. This will require the candidate in question to win each one of the following states by just one vote: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The extreme opposite ends of the spectrum of possible in the electoral college, but highly unlikely given the political makeup of the mentioned states.
Very good NWM. Extreme cases are the foundation for the decisions made to use the Electoral College by the Founders in my opinion. Nothing is perfect, but straight out Popular Vote is just out of the question.
Good points. The founders were wise and correct to create the electoral college. It was a great way to preserve our Republic form of government.