What’s the most extreme theoretical difference possible in electoral college outcome vs popular votes? How badly could a winning president lose the popular vote?
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In 1860, Lincoln won the electoral college with less than 40% of the popular vote. Even if his three opponents had all combined their popular votes, Lincoln would *still* have won the EC.
This result was what drove the political logic of Secession in the South.
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So that’s a good benchmark for civil-war level stress on the body politic. Except in this case it would be “sick of the union” instead of “preserve the union”
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Something like this 59/41 is apparently theoretically possible:
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Twitter contest update: congrats to @Stuart98_, who has won a free year's subscription to @CookPolitical by using our #2020Swingometer to draw up a (totally implausible) scenario in which Biden wins the popular vote by 21.3 million (!) but still loses the Electoral College. twitter.com/Stuart98_/stat…
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I don’t think there’s anything in the federal Constitution about how voting should proceed, that’s left to the states. Why can’t California use a high quality survey to determine how delegates should vote in the electoral college. Voting problems solved!
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With extreme voter suppression you could get really extreme by pushing down voters in Texas and Florida, but they still get the same number of electors





