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More first-past-the-post foolishness: Obama got 50.3% of the popular vote but 59.9% of the electoral college vote, while Romney got 48.2% of the popular vote bu
by RyanMcGreal 14y ago
More first-past-the-post foolishness: Obama got 50.3% of the popular vote but 59.9% of the electoral college vote, while Romney got 48.2% of the popular vote but 40.5% of the electoral college vote.
- theycallmemorty 14y agoIn the last Canadian federal election, we gave one party a majority government even though they only won 39.62% of the popular vote. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_2011
- RyanMcGreal 14y agoAbsolutely. I'm also Canadian, and therefore sensitized to the issues surrounding FPTP. So far, Canada has somehow resisted the tendency toward a partisan duopoly, but that's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it means you can actually choose to vote for a progressive party, a moderate party or a conservative party (or a regional party). On the other, it means we get lots of bizarre artifacts, e.g. the 2008 election, in which the NDP had 18% of the vote but only 12% of the seats, while the BQ had 10% of the votes but 17% of the seats.