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Campaign strategies are endogenous. That is, if we get rid of the electoral college, campaign strategies would shift considerably -- for example, both parties w

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.