By now we know that Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote, but not the presidency, reminiscent of the 2000 election. We also know that the electoral college system is extremely flawed, as our founding fathers didn’t entrust the general election completely to their own citizens, hence the electoral presidents were created.
Whether or not the electoral system should stay or go is for another discussion, as I see benefits and disadvantages, (especially if the electors deem Trump unfit for president and cast their votes for Hillary on Dec. 19) — but what if the votes were awarded proportionately this election to each candidate and not a winner take all system like it is now?
I don’t have a fancy graphic, but I did the math, much like anyone could with 20 minutes, a calculator and the vote counts — and it proves exactly why we need to fix or get rid of the same system that Trump criticized four years ago.
Clinton — 261 electoral votes
Trump — 259 electoral votes
Johnson — 17 electoral votes
Stein — 1 electoral vote.
Now my math may not be perfect, but the strategy is simple — you take the percentage of the winner and apply that to the number of electoral votes for the state. For example, in Texas, Trump won the vote by a 53% to 43% margin of victory. Johnson ended up with 3% of the vote, and Stein less than a percent — which wouldn’t amount to an electoral vote in this rhetorical system.
That would mean instead of Trump getting all 38 votes, he would only end up with 20. Clinton 17, and Johnson with 1.
There would be no longer a “race to 270” — it would just be a final tally at the end of the night to see who got the most electoral votes. It’s stupidly simple. In this case, the results make sense for this election — as Clinton narrowly won the popular vote, and would narrowly win the electoral vote as well.
The same thing happened in 2012, where Obama and Romney were only separated by 4% of the popular vote with the edge going to Obama. The electoral votes had Obama winning out by a 62% to 38 % margin, even though if done proportionately, Obama would only win the electoral votes by 2% instead of 24%.
I know there’s petitions going around about doing away with the electoral college, but in theory, it would easily work as long as these votes were awarded correctly.
It prevents that sick feeling we all have when we know Hillary Clinton is literally what the majority of the country wanted and voted for, yet instead we have a xenophobe in office that is more embarrassing than inspiring.
All it would take is a simple amendment to the constitution, and all will be at the very least, as fair as it can be — which I can’t say was the case for the entirety of this election from the start of the primaries to its shameful finish.
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