Donald Trump's questionable claim that Electoral College favors the Democrats

tulc

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http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...-trumps-questionable-claim-electoral-college/
Trump said that "the Electoral College is much more advantageous for Democrats."

There may have been a popular misperception prior to the 2016 election that Democrats had a large number of solidly blue states that made it much easier for them to reach 270 than the Republicans. But professional handicappers never considered states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to be solid for the Democrats, even in the 2008 and 2012 elections — and any notion that they continue to be solidly Democratic going forward was exploded by Trump’s wins in those states, making his use of the present tense dubious.

There may even be a modest Republican lean to the Electoral College in this political moment, but we couldn’t find evidence of a permanent bias either way.

We rate the statement False.
tulc(President Trump's 189th false, his 75th false since becoming President) :wave:
 

redleghunter

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mama2one

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from the above OP's article:


"In the five most-recent elections starting with 2000, the Republicans have twice lost the popular vote but won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore defeated Republican George W. Bush by more than 547,000 votes nationally. In 2016, Clinton defeated Trump by an even larger margin — almost 2.9 million votes. Neither of the popular vote winners became president.
"That certainly doesn’t suggest the Electoral College has a Democratic bias. In fact, it indicates the opposite," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics."




they should do away with the outdated electoral college system and it should be flat out "number of votes"
then every vote will truly count
 
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TuxAme

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from the above OP's article:


"In the five most-recent elections starting with 2000, the Republicans have twice lost the popular vote but won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore defeated Republican George W. Bush by more than 547,000 votes nationally. In 2016, Clinton defeated Trump by an even larger margin — almost 2.9 million votes. Neither of the popular vote winners became president.
"That certainly doesn’t suggest the Electoral College has a Democratic bias. In fact, it indicates the opposite," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics."




they should do away with the outdated electoral college system and it should be flat out "number of votes"
then every vote will truly count
The electoral college isn't "outdated". It exists because we're not a direct democracy. We're a republic.
 
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EastCoastRemnant

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from the above OP's article:


"In the five most-recent elections starting with 2000, the Republicans have twice lost the popular vote but won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore defeated Republican George W. Bush by more than 547,000 votes nationally. In 2016, Clinton defeated Trump by an even larger margin — almost 2.9 million votes. Neither of the popular vote winners became president.
"That certainly doesn’t suggest the Electoral College has a Democratic bias. In fact, it indicates the opposite," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics."




they should do away with the outdated electoral college system and it should be flat out "number of votes"
then every vote will truly count
It is a strange voting system for sure... still better than ours, imo.
 
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mama2one

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It is a strange voting system for sure...

agree^

in our town, when we vote to raise our taxes or not, every vote counts
sometimes it's less than 1% on some votes

certainly wouldn't seem fair if one section of our town counted more than another section
 
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Richard T

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There have been 4 elections where the Republican candidate lost the popular vote but won the election.
1876 Rutherford Hayes
1888 Benjamin Harrison
2000 George W. Bush
2016 Donald Trump

I know of no instance where the democrat has not won the popular vote but was elected the President. At face value it would appear the EC favors the Republicans though there are news sources that say otherwise. However, you have to consider how voting and campaigning would change with just the popular vote. Turnout would likely be higher in the biggest states where many currently do not vote because the outcome is already sure to be for the Democrats. The swing states like Ohio would matter far less, a candidate would have to advertise in all the major markets, the money needed would go through the roof too. Thus, it seems clear the EC college favors the GOP.

A caveat to this conclusion is that the EC voting system could highly favor the independent candidate. By winning the EC votes in a single state in an election where no one has the majority of the EC, they could be elected by the House. That is the only hope of the third place finisher to ever be president. All this would take is a couple of rogue states to reject the mainline parties and get organized to consistently chose a third party.
 
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tulc

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The electoral college isn't "outdated". It exists because we're not a direct democracy. We're a republic.
Then perhaps we need to fine tune it to represent more accurately? For instance: if the whole "winner takes all" portion were to be eliminated across the board and electoral votes were proportioned by percentage recieved that would break up the whole "States with the most people would win every time" wouldn't it? Say President Trump got 40% of California's popular vote then he would get 40% of the Electoral votes. It also seems that this would open it up for smaller Parties to start having a greater voice in government. To me? The "winner takes all" is designed to keep the major Parties in power. :wave:
tulc(just a thought) :)
 
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Traveling teacher

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from the above OP's article:


"In the five most-recent elections starting with 2000, the Republicans have twice lost the popular vote but won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore defeated Republican George W. Bush by more than 547,000 votes nationally. In 2016, Clinton defeated Trump by an even larger margin — almost 2.9 million votes. Neither of the popular vote winners became president.
"That certainly doesn’t suggest the Electoral College has a Democratic bias. In fact, it indicates the opposite," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics."




they should do away with the outdated electoral college system and it should be flat out "number of votes"
then every vote will truly count

what if you took away the 3 million illegals that voted for democrats
.....
i bleieve that would have given Tump the total.....
 
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mama2one

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Traveling teacher

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grasping the after wind

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Then perhaps we need to fine tune it to represent more accurately? For instance: if the whole "winner takes all" portion were to be eliminated across the board and electoral votes were proportioned by percentage recieved that would break up the whole "States with the most people would win every time" wouldn't it? Say President Trump got 40% of California's popular vote then he would get 40% of the Electoral votes. It also seems that this would open it up for smaller Parties to start having a greater voice in government. To me? The "winner takes all" is designed to keep the major Parties in power. :wave:
tulc(just a thought) :)

I like this idea. Unfortunately the system is very unlikely to be changed due to the need for a Constitutional amendment to change it and as you point out the Twoparties would not be in favor of being less in control after all the trouble they have gone through to monopolize political power in the US. Voter turnout in states where one party dominates might be much different if the voters knew they might have some actual influence by voting. If that is the case, there is no way of knowing how the change would affect the outcome of elections as there is no way of knowing which group would be more inclined to vote under new rules, those that do not vote now because they feel disenfranchised as the opposite party has a stranglehold or those that don't vote now as they feel safe because they are assured that their side will always win anyway .
 
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tulc

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what if you took away the 3 million illegals that voted for democrats
Got any proof for this? Because I'll bet law enforcement (and us as well) would be very interested in seeing it. :)

.....
i bleieve that would have given Tump the total.....
And I believe if Republicans don't seem to care that the Russians interfered in the election than I'm not sure why they pretend to care about who's voting. :wave:
tulc(just a thought)
 
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Traveling teacher

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Oh I see now how the dems have half the country decieved...
by getting the media to lie to the public...makes it true

.....if 1 million illegals get a drivers license in California in less than 2 years....
and all you need is a drivers license to vote....
i would say that is illegals voting....

Oh I forgot we just go by the honor system in America...
Please dont vote if you are illegal!!!!
Works everytime!!!

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12...undocumented-immigrants-under-2-year-old-law/

Two years after the implementation of AB 60 on Jan. 1, 2015, an estimated 806,000 undocumented residents have received driver’s licenses,
 
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Hank77

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Oh I see now how the dems have half the country decieved...
by getting the media to lie to the public...makes it true

.....if 1 million illegals get a drivers license in California in less than 2 years....
and all you need is a drivers license to vote....
i would say that is illegals voting....

Oh I forgot we just go by the honor system in America...
Please dont vote if you are illegal!!!!
Works everytime!!!

https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12...undocumented-immigrants-under-2-year-old-law/

Two years after the implementation of AB 60 on Jan. 1, 2015, an estimated 806,000 undocumented residents have received driver’s licenses,
Seeing that is not how it works, which is even pointed out in the Breitbart article. Did you even read the article at all, even the title gives a clue that it isn't so simple as you are implying.

Any person who renewed or secured a driver’s license through the DMV may now register to vote, or choose to opt out of doing so. Because illegal immigrants are now eligible for obtaining driver’s licenses, they could be allowed to vote in elections if the Secretary of State’s office fails to verify their eligibility properly.

Although noncitizens’ driver’s licenses in California feature the phrases “Federal Limits Apply” and “not valid for official federal purposes,” True the Vote spokesman Logan Churchwell pointed out that state officials “specifically chose not to make noncitizen license holders searchable in their DMV database.”


Because they are supposedly not searchable through the DMV doesn't mean they are not searchable at all. Police have to have a data base where they can search a license when one of these people get stopped for a traffic violation. They are in a data base that the Secretary of State will have access to.
 
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Traveling teacher

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Seeing that is not how it works, which is even pointed out in the Breitbart article. Did you even read the article at all, even the title gives a clue that it isn't so simple as you are implying.

Any person who renewed or secured a driver’s license through the DMV may now register to vote, or choose to opt out of doing so. Because illegal immigrants are now eligible for obtaining driver’s licenses, they could be allowed to vote in elections if the Secretary of State’s office fails to verify their eligibility properly.

Although noncitizens’ driver’s licenses in California feature the phrases “Federal Limits Apply” and “not valid for official federal purposes,” True the Vote spokesman Logan Churchwell pointed out that state officials “specifically chose not to make noncitizen license holders searchable in their DMV database.”


Because they are supposedly not searchable through the DMV doesn't mean they are not searchable at all. Police have to have a data base where they can search a license when one of these people get stopped for a traffic violation. They are in a data base that the Secretary of State will have access to.

like I said it is easy to lie and decieve Americans....

just talked to a person from Caolifornia.....
Coudnt believe that all you have to have is a drivers licese to vote...
He said it is true ....read the articles

According to the law and a report by the Washington Times, “The New Motor Voter Act automatically registers to vote all eligible voters when they OBTAIN or renew their drivers licenses at the Department of Motor Vehicles instead of requiring them to fill out a form.
 
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