This Stunned Even Me: The Importance Of The Electoral College
This morning at AmThinker: The electoral college did more in 2016 than you might think .
What few if any have noticed is that in 2016 the electoral college prevented 3 out of 3,141 counties with about 5% of the electorate and population from picking the president.
According to the New York Times election results,
Hillary Clinton received 2,868,519 or about 2% more than President Trump out of the 128,838,731 votes the two major party candidates received.
The county by county vote totals from the Times show that in 2016 the electoral college saved the US from more than one or a couple of state[s] picking the president.
In 2016, Clinton won Los Angeles County, Calif., 2,464,364 to 769,743, or by 1,694,621 votes.
She also won Cook County (Chicago), Illinois 1,611,946 to 453,287, or, by 1,158,659 votes.
So Clinton’s margin in just two counties, L.A. and Cook, was 2,853,280, just 15,239 votes short of her 2,868,519 vote plurality nationwide.
Now maybe this story would be neater, if Clinton’s plurality came from just two countries. Still the facts are those 15,239 votes must be made up by a third county. There are a few counties with a Clinton margin greater than 15,239 votes in 2016, but the one with the third-greatest Clinton margin in 2016 was New York County (Manhattan), New York, where she won 579,013 to 64,929 or by 514,084 votes.
That means Clinton won L.A., Chicago, and Manhattan by 3,367,364, or, by 498,845 votes more than her nationwide 2,868,519 plurality.
Put another way, without those three counties President Trump would have had an almost half million (498,845) vote plurality in 2016. This Trump plurality would have come from California including San Francisco less L.A. County; Illinois, less Cook County; New York including Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens less Manhattan; plus the other 47 states and Washington D.C.
Now you can see why it's so important for people even in Blue states to get out and vote. The popular vote matters for the sake of legitimacy in the public mind. Non-voting is a vote for revolution.
ADDENDUM: This probably explains Trump's trip to CA. Yes, the trip is a sign that Trump believes he's doing very well in the electoral college count--that would be the only reason he could spare time away from the battleground states. So, that's all to the good. However, it's also a sign that he understands the importance the national popular vote could hold for a second term--as a talking point. It would be huge for Trump to take that talking point away from the Dems and appropriate it for himself.
So, his trip to True Red Newport Beach, CA--hasn't voted for a Dem in 57 years--may not have had a chance of flipping CA. That's not the point. The point is to get out the conservative vote and run up the GOP popular vote. To do that he has to go to vote rich CA. However, there are plenty of non-voters still across the country who can accomplish that, too.