# If the events of the movie Swing Vote happened in 2020, how bad would it be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 6, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793 "2021-07-06T06:45:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/1 "2021-07-06T06:46:00Z")
If you never seen it, Swing Vote was 2008 movie set in a fictional 2008 where in their version of the American Presidential Election of 2008, it was incredibly close to the point that New Mexico is the state to win to gain the electoral votes necessary to win, and after every ballot is counted and recounted it turns out that it’s a dead-tie throughout the entire state with only one vote not being counted by a computer glitch, the vote of a blue collar “everyman” played by Kevin Costner and as a result both Presidential candidates give him 10 days to cast his vote and then openly pander to him in order to win his winning vote. I was just thinking, can you image if that was what happened in 2020? If the election of Trump Vs Biden was decided by a blue collar Kevin Costner? How many people would be trying to kill Costner or kidnap his family members in an attempt to get him to vote for their candidate? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/2 "2021-07-06T06:53:40Z")
If the election were forever unresolved, Pelosi becomes president. So the D’s would have _slightly_ more incentive to bump this swing voter off. The R’s on the other hand would have zero incentive to kill him prior to him casting a ballot. Threaten and blackmail, though, absolutely. And once he did cast his vote, he’d face terrible retaliation, although by then it would be too late. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/3 "2021-07-06T12:29:16Z")
Moved to P&E from the Café as while inspired by a movie it is a political discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/4 "2021-07-06T12:36:48Z")
Aside: Proponents of the Electoral College often cite as a benefit that it makes this situation much more likely. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/5 "2021-07-06T14:11:52Z")
One thing’s for sure, there would be extreme angst and regret among a million or more eligible voters in that key state (be it New Mexico or whatnot) who could have voted but chose not to, now that they see the would-have-been immense importance of their solitary vote. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2021, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/6 "2021-07-06T22:51:18Z")
I think Isaac Asimov had a short story in which political polling had gotten so sophisticated that one person was asked to cast his vote for the presidency. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/7 "2021-07-07T02:25:02Z")
_Morbo:_ Elections do not work that way! Good night! ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/8 "2021-07-13T01:16:10Z")
Yeah. I didn’t see the movie, but if the guy’s vote wasn’t counted, and there’s no way to find out who he voted for on Election Day, there is no possible scenario in which the remedy would be “Give him another ten days”. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/9 "2021-07-13T02:50:33Z")
Not “polling,” exactly. Multivac had gotten so sophisticated that it could select one person out of the entire country as being most representative of the country as a whole. Thus, it could extrapolate from that one person how the nationwide vote would go if anybody else had voted. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-events-of-the-movie-swing-vote-happened-in-2020-how-bad-would-it-be/945793/10 "2021-07-13T02:56:22Z")
FYI, the story was called _[Franchise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchise_(short_story))_.