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> Of those, he got less than 50% (as Clinton got more votes than him). Mrs. Clinton also got less than 50% of the votes. Neither one won a clear majority of t
by wtbob 10y ago
> Of those, he got less than 50% (as Clinton got more votes than him).
Mrs. Clinton also got less than 50% of the votes. Neither one won a clear majority of the popular vote.
- tptacek 10y agoYou are rebutting an argument nobody made.
- wtbob 10y agoHis phrase, 'he got less than 50% (as Clinton got more votes than him),' implies that Mr. Trump received less than 50% because Mrs. Clinton received more votes than him, which is not true: they both received less than 50% because a significant portion of voters chose not to vote for either.
- Jtsummers 10y agoIf there are at least two candidates in an election, and one has more votes than all the others, none of the others can have over 50%. This does not, strictly speaking, imply that the winning (by plurality rules, not majority rules) candidate has over 50%, it merely sets the bounds on what all other candidates can have. Clinton has more votes (popular vote) than Trump, ergo, he cannot have had 50% of the vote. That was my statement, and it's a factual statement. You interpreted it to imply that she, then, must have had over 50% of the vote. That was not my statement nor my intended implication.
- Jtsummers 10y agoYou are correct. I didn't say otherwise. EDIT: Out of curiosity I looked some numbers up, going just by the ones that did turn out to vote, she has 47.52% of the cast votes, he has 47.19%. The difference in votes is around 400k.
- wtbob 10y ago> I didn't say otherwise. Well, you wrote, 'he got less than 50% (as Clinton got more votes than him),' which means that the reason Mr. Trump received less than half the votes is that Mrs. Clinton received more than half the votes, which isn't true: both of them received less than half the votes because some voters voted for neither. It's interesting that I'm being downvoted because folks think I'm a Trump partisan (I'm not!) I'm just pointing out facts, not opinion.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Jtsummers 10y agoI was responding to someone claiming that a majority voted for Trump, which is a falsifiable statement. My response was to use the quickest, factual statement to counter it (Clinton had the largest block of the popular vote, therefore Trump must be under 50%). Perhaps I should have responded with the actual percentages (which showed they were both under the 50% mark), but there's no need to read into my writing statements that I did not make.
- wtbob 10y agoYup, you're right. I've been so annoyed at folks claiming that either of them got the majority of the votes that I completely misread your claim.