2 ms·
If the popular vote won the presidency, campaigns would adjust their strategy to address the popular vote. Exactly, these complaints are based on an unknowable
by hga 10y ago
If the popular vote won the presidency, campaigns would adjust their strategy to address the popular vote.
Exactly, these complaints are based on an unknowable counterfactual, that if the rules of the game were total votes, a Trump campaign based on them wouldn't have won.
All we know is that if you change the rules of the game after it's been played, Hillary "won".
Plus states generally don't count absentee ballots unless they could change election results (which wouldn't necessarily be for the presidential race), so we're only talking about votes counted, not votes cast. And absentee ballots strongly break Republican, like 2/3rds to 1/3rd from one source I just read.
- mikeyouse 10y agoThere's a certain bit of irony in your critique including an incorrect and unsourced rumor that has been making its way around social media. In case it isn't clear, yes, all ballots are counted in every election. Even absentee ballots. The idea that they're not counted is ludicrous. https://www.fvap.gov/vao/vag/appendix/faq https://www.fvap.gov/vao/vag/appendix/faq
- hga 10y agoWhile it may be an "unsourced rumor that has been making its way around social media.", it's also something I learned years ago, it's a simple and very obvious economy measure. And whatever that Official Federal Government FAQ might say to, for example, encourage people to vote absentee, it has no bearing on the facts on the ground. The rules of which are, for Presidental elections, the sole prerogative of each state's legislature.
- mikeyouse 10y agoThe fact that you learned it years ago doesn't change whether it's an unsourced rumor. Every single state certifies their ballot totals and every single state counts each vote. I challenge you to find a single state where their policy is to only count absentees in close races.