[bwanab]

Historically the electoral college was a compromise that allowed for the counting of slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of taxation and voting without having them vote. Consider a state like South Carolina which at the time had about 50% of its population as black. How could the 3/5 of the 50% of the people get added to the total otherwise? Any method would be a hack, but this one had the benefit of being able to create a justification that it protected small states from being dominated by large states.

If you're American living in one of the majority of states that aren't "swing" states, I don't think you can escape the feeling when you vote for president that you're going through a kind of charade since the winner is going to be determined by some small number of voters in 6 states.

[627467]

> If you're American living in one of the majority of states that aren't "swing" states, I don't think you can escape the feeling when you vote for president that you're going through a kind of charade since the winner is going to be determined by some small number of voters in 6 states.

I don't get the repeating of this perspective, didn't he win the popular vote this time? How did "small number of voters in 6 states" affect this reality?

Isn't winning the electoral college but not the popular vote a statistical minor occurrence? People don't know how to lose.

[maxerickson]

Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would be enough electoral college votes to change the election result. The combined margin in those states is currently about 250,000 votes.

So if a few hundred thousand people had decided the other way, the electoral college would have gone to Harris, without really changing the popular vote outcome.

You may be imputing a position that the poster you replied to didn't take (they said voting in a state with predictable outcome feels like a charade, without saying anything about how they vote).

[xnx]

> People don't know how to lose.

Completely agree. So much "stop the steal", fake electors" and storm the capitol nonsense.

[bwanab]

I'm not making any statement about any particular election. This statement is just as true for a conservative voter in Massachusetts as it is for a liberal voter in Tennessee.