# The Proportional Presidential Poll **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 10, 2016, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011 "2016-06-10T10:49:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/1 "2016-06-10T10:49:38Z")
A hypothetical: The nature of the Electoral College in conjunction with winner take all voting (usually) is to convert close voting majorities into clear EC margins. Whether this is good or bad has been thrashed out in any number of past threads. By a crude estimate I took the votes for the past 5 elections, distributed each states EC votes in proportion to the popular vote and tallied them as shown below. These don’t consider the implications of third party candidates in 1996 & 2000. The actual EC votes shown in brackets allow for the single faithless vote in 2000 (DC) and 2004 (MN). **1996** Clinton: 294 [379] Dole: 244 [159] **2000** Bush: 269 [271] Gore: 269 [266] **2004** Bush: 280 [286] Kerry: 258 [251] **2008** Obama: 288 [365] McCain: 250 [173] **2012** Obama: 277 [332] Romney: 261 [206] e.g. in 2012 my calcs would give California to Obama by 33-22. Romney would have picked up 157 votes (60% of his proportional total) in Blue states, and lost 71 votes in Red states. What do you think would be the dynamics of a US presidential election campaign where the Electoral College vote of each state was allocated proportionally? To my thinking; [ul] [li]They’d all be a lot closer;[/li][li]They’d be much more hard fought;[/li][li]They’d be a lot more expensive, or candidates would need to be far more strategic with their media buy/targeting; [/li][li]Campaigns would be shorter because the physical/emotional strain on candidates being spread that thin for that long;[/li][li]The battleground states would always remain key, but there’d be more of them and closer to proportionate attention spent on each state;[/li][li]A third party candidate would find it no easier to be viable or win, but if the ducks lined up could be a genuine kingmaker;[/li][li]the process would be more inclusive;[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/2 "2016-06-10T11:43:53Z")
The net effect of proportional electoral votes would be about the same as if you switched to a pure popular vote presidential general election. The change would be that there would be no meaningful “battleground” states as winning Ohio by 1% would be of little more significance than losing it by 1%, and less than changing the margin in Illinois by 1%. Yes the tactics would change and require a new cost benefit analysis of media market price to winnable population. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/3 "2016-06-10T11:47:04Z")
Much, much more campaigning in big cities, and much more “get out the vote” focus. Presidential candidates would actually campaign and hold rallies in NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, etc., which probably hasn’t happened in general election campaigns in decades. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/4 "2016-06-12T05:14:26Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Presidential candidates would actually campaign and hold rallies in NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, etc., which probably hasn’t happened in general election campaigns in decades. I’m not disputing the statement, but I find that very surprising, disturbing even. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/5 "2016-06-12T20:34:08Z")
I just want to get rid of the two extra electors per state. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/6 "2016-06-12T23:33:33Z")
“Four-Thirty-Eight” just doesn’t have the same ring. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/7 "2016-06-13T00:32:51Z")
Why in the world would we want to give proportional electoral votes. Most of the time it would give exactly the same final result as just counting popular vote and for those times it didn’t, we’d complain. The main difference, apart from rounding issues, which would really cause complaints, would make states with low turnout over-represented relative to just counting popular vote. I’d think this would encourage even more attempts to restrict voting by the less popular party in a given state. So why not switch to popular vote. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-proportional-presidential-poll/757011/8 "2016-06-13T13:16:52Z")
The electoral college helps to insulate the national result from shenanigans at the state level. If Generic Small Red State suppresses vote among Democratic-leaning groups, then they do little more than make their electors super-duper red. But if we had a national popular vote, they could make the difference and tilt the national election. We don’t want the presidency determined by which side is the most devious in suppressing the vote in states they control, particularly since Republicans would win that battle hands down.