WaPo: Trump lost the popular vote. It doesn’t mean he would have lost a popular-vote

The fact is that just because Trump lost the popular vote last week doesn't mean he would have lost a popular-vote election.


What do I mean by that? Basically, losing the popular vote in an electoral-college election isn't the same as losing the popular vote in a popular-vote election.

The former involves a very specific strategy that may cost you when it comes to winning the nationwide popular vote. But you pursue that strategy because the latter doesn't matter.

You need to get to 270 electoral votes, not a majority or plurality of all votes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...n-he-would-have-lost-a-popular-vote-election/

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zimmer said:

....The popular vote is meaningless....

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Utility Man said:

democraticunderground photo montage

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zimmer said:

He's on record... even after this election... he doesn't like the Electoral College. Prefers the popular vote.

It changes nothing in the OP.... which is:


The popular vote is meaningless (when you are running an Electoral College election).

Different strategy, tactics... and the result can never been known when running an Electoral College election.

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Johnson said:

There is some wisdom in the point you're making. All the (well not all, but a lot) national pundits were projecting Hillary would swing some red states over to blue when what actually happened was Trump swung blue states red. I hate to keep beating the drum for Wisconsin, but the fact that she was a total no-show was a piss poor strategy. He ran the race the way he needed to to get the result he wanted. Hopefully he, and the people he surrounds himself with, show that kind of planning and vision over the next 4 yearsm

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What Ada did, based on all that data, aides said, was run 400,000 simulations a day of what the race against Trump might look like. A report that was spit out would give campaign manager Robby Mook and others a detailed picture of which battleground states were most likely to tip the race in one direction or another — and guide decisions about where to spend time and deploy resources.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...on-an-algorithm-named-ada-what-didnt-she-see/

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zimmer said:

Made this point yesterday in another thread:



The popular vote is meaningless.

Different strategy, tactics... and the result can never been known when running an Electoral College election.

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Utility Man said:

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zimmer said:

WaPo reports the Clinton campaign relied on an algorithm dubbed Ada... and it:



Ada reaffirms the old computer adage... "Garbage-in, Garbage-out".

If Ada had all the Clinton info, Ada would have spit out... Do Not Run Under Any Circumstances.

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