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Maybe you're aware already, but I'll mention it in case to aren't; the electoral college distorts the results of presidential elections. Hillary Clinton "got mo

Maybe you're aware already, but I'll mention it in case to aren't; the electoral college distorts the results of presidential elections. Hillary Clinton "got more votes than any presidential candidate in history besides Barack Obama, and won the popular vote by a wider margin than John F Kennedy in 1960 or Richard Nixon in 1968, both of whom ended up in the White House." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-president-protests-los-angeles-new-york-chicago-day-five-a7414261.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election... Edited in response to rdtsc's reply below: This comment was in response to "Hillary having the worst Democratic performance in 28 years"

rdtsc 10y ago
> the electoral college distorts the results of presidential elections. Right but what's the point though? What is it in response to? Yes electoral college is how presidential elections happen. To win the election one needs electoral college votes. I've heard she had a stellar team and a tremendous experience as a politician. You think they didn't know and instead went for the popular vote?
- lambertsimnel 10y ago
  > To win the election one needs electoral college votes. I've heard she had a stellar team and a tremendous experience as a politician. You think they didn't know and instead went for the popular vote? I believe both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump targeted swing states, neglecting the rest of the country. Clearly Donald Trump did this better. I'm not fond of either of those candidates, but neither do I mean to blame them. Above all it is the electoral system that has failed.
olenin_khan 10y ago
Campaign strategies are endogenous. That is, if we get rid of the electoral college, campaign strategies would shift considerably -- for example, both parties would spend much more time on maximizing turnout in core states, as opposed to focusing attention on swing states. So, it is possible that the popular vote with the electoral college would not be mirrored by a popular vote without the electoral college.
- lambertsimnel 10y ago
  Good point. The same might be said about voters' own behaviour. Even if the campaigns had been the same, people would probably have voted differently without the electoral college. (By which I mean more people would have actually voted outside the swing states, rather than that people who did vote would have voted differently.) The electoral college distorts not only the results of presidential elections, but also the conduct of presidential election campaigns.

rdtsc 10y ago

> the electoral college distorts the results of presidential elections. Right but what's the point though? What is it in response to? Yes electoral college is how presidential elections happen. To win the election one needs electoral college votes. I've heard she had a stellar team and a tremendous experience as a politician. You think they didn't know and instead went for the popular vote?

lambertsimnel 10y ago
> To win the election one needs electoral college votes. I've heard she had a stellar team and a tremendous experience as a politician. You think they didn't know and instead went for the popular vote? I believe both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump targeted swing states, neglecting the rest of the country. Clearly Donald Trump did this better. I'm not fond of either of those candidates, but neither do I mean to blame them. Above all it is the electoral system that has failed.

olenin_khan 10y ago

Campaign strategies are endogenous. That is, if we get rid of the electoral college, campaign strategies would shift considerably -- for example, both parties would spend much more time on maximizing turnout in core states, as opposed to focusing attention on swing states. So, it is possible that the popular vote with the electoral college would not be mirrored by a popular vote without the electoral college.

lambertsimnel 10y ago
Good point. The same might be said about voters' own behaviour. Even if the campaigns had been the same, people would probably have voted differently without the electoral college. (By which I mean more people would have actually voted outside the swing states, rather than that people who did vote would have voted differently.) The electoral college distorts not only the results of presidential elections, but also the conduct of presidential election campaigns.