Romney's Magic Number

From the New Yorker Magazine we learn that a switch of 142,262 votes in five swing states, Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado could have meant a Romney win in the Electoral College and a 3,082,474 popular vote victory by President Obama.  In 2008 McCain would have needed to switch a little more than 500,000 in seven states to change the outcome of the race.

The election that now seems to have been not so close, was closer than many who will look at the results and see Obama 332 - Romney 206.

I don't think the country would take kindly to even one more presidential election where the loser of the popular vote could be trumped by a challengers victory in the Electoral College.

We need to fix this.

Comments

  1. Andy KrauseNovember 15, 2012 at 6:20 AM

    I think it depends on which part of the country you are talking about. Sure urban west coast and east cities would feel that way. But states out in the west and southwest feel very differently. There is a lot of resentment in the west over control of their resources and lives by eastern elites. If you look at voting down to the local levels, a lot of states are controlled by a few urban counties, similar to Illinois and Cook county. Should a few urban counties control the entire country? Depends on who you ask.

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    Replies
    1. John AsgeirsonNovember 15, 2012 at 11:56 AM

      Maybe if we elected presidents by popular vote some of the funny business with voting might be minimized but I'm not sure. In Florida rural areas are well represented because of some powers that counties have. And people are moving from rural to urban areas in general. Thanks for the comments.

      Delete
  2. Andy KrauseNovember 16, 2012 at 5:11 AM

    I found this 3-D map of red/blue which gives a cool picture of the power of the urban vote. It's from 2010 so it is skewed red a little bit. I didn't find one for 2012 yet.
    Blue Cities

    ReplyDelete
  3. John AsgeirsonNovember 17, 2012 at 9:18 AM

    Not surprising. If we all self select what does that mean for democracy? I think with some reflection it might be possible some overlap in the political parties that would make compromise easier rather than rigid ideologies that make comprise so difficult. I saw a map by county that showed the country with various shades of red and blue and purple. I'm sure DuPage County is not as red as it once was. Thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete

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