[biophysboy]

They by no means have total control. People can still think. The point is media also provides interpretation. So, instead of going into a voting booth reflecting over your own needs or principles, you go into the booth thinking about polling and statistics. You vote for somebody because their number is higher on 538. It gets worse when you consider that the people being polled are themselves thinking about who is most viable or likable.

[noduerme]

It could just as easily work the other way. e.g. all the polling says Trump can't beat Hillary, so no one bothers going out to vote for Hillary.

[CalChris]

In fact, Hillary won the popular vote by quite a lot, 2.8M or more than 2% of the vote.