Obama: The electoral college is a "vestige"

[never_retreat]

I question it mostly because millions of people don't vote in some states because they know their vote is thrown away.
Those are the numbers I would like to see.

[Hawkmoon]

Here's an interesting statistic:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4055182/Final-tally-shows-Trump-lost-popular-vote-2-8-million-BEAT-Clinton-3-million-votes-outside-California-New-York.html

Excluding New York and California, Trump won the popular vote by 3 million people. So, morally as well as legally/technically, he actually does represent the choice of most of the country.

[Ben]

Here's an interesting statistic:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4055182/Final-tally-shows-Trump-lost-popular-vote-2-8-million-BEAT-Clinton-3-million-votes-outside-California-New-York.html

Excluding New York and California, Trump won the popular vote by 3 million people. So, morally as well as legally/technically, he actually does represent the choice of most of the country.

That really needs to be spread far and wide. It will, but sadly and likely only in the demographics that could figure it out for themselves.

[MechAg94]

I have heard you can narrow it further to New York City and LA County.  Rush talked about it, but I am not sure of the source.

[Ben]

I have heard you can narrow it further to New York City and LA County.  Rush talked about it, but I am not sure of the source.

At first I was surprised at LA County and no mention of San Fran, but LA area probably has a larger population of "ghost voters".

[DittoHead]

Here's an interesting statistic:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4055182/Final-tally-shows-Trump-lost-popular-vote-2-8-million-BEAT-Clinton-3-million-votes-outside-California-New-York.html

Excluding New York and California, Trump won the popular vote by 3 million people. So, morally as well as legally/technically, he actually does represent the choice of most of the country.

There are a lot of these "interesting statistics". If you exclude the places where someone did well, their opponent will appear to do better! Duh?

Just three counties – Macomb County, MI; York County, PA and Waukesha County, WI – elected Donald Trump. If those three counties had cast zero votes, Trump would have lost all three states and the election. By the same logic, just three counties re-elected President Obama in 2012: Miami-Dade County, FL; Cuyahoga County, OH and Philadelphia, PA.

[makattak]

There are a lot of these "interesting statistics". If you exclude the places where someone did well, their opponent will appear to do better! Duh?

In a close race, you can make almost anywhere a swing "county".

When someone wins the popular vote by 3 million votes, and their supporters want to tout that as evidence of her broad appeal, it helps to note that the entirety of the difference came from just one state (California, 4+ million) or just two metropolitan areas.

I look at that information as more confirmation of the genius of the founders in setting up the electoral college.

Further, it shows how divergent California (and New York) are from the rest of the country.

[Hawkmoon]

Further, it shows how divergent California (and New York) are from the rest of the country.

QFT

[MechAg94]

I would be curious to see a comparison of popular vote from several solid red and solid blue states.  Were those two states unique?  The Democrats are clinging to the popular vote difference, but that rings hollow when it is pointed out that just about all the difference came from the large margin in two states.  It wasn't a national trend.

As makattak said, it underscores the advantages of the electoral college in not allowing a large popular vote disparity in one state to swing the entire national election.  It only affects that one state whether it is actual votes or fraud.