Results by Congressional District

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

These are the 2008 results if all states voted like Maine and Nebraska. If anyone has such results for any other elections, feel free to post.

Republican delegates won, by state:

236 electoral votes

West: 91 electoral votes
South: 102 electoral votes
Midwest: 26 electoral votes
Northeast: 17 electoral votes

Democratic delegates won, by state:

302 electoral votes

West: 91 electoral votes
South: 57 electoral votes
Midwest: 70 electoral votes
Northeast: 84 electoral votes


Gain in delegates for statewide loser by state:

Net winner of delegates by state:

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

302-236

That would give Obama 56.4% of EVs and McCain 44.1%. That would be much more representative of the popular vote, which gave Obama 52.9% and McCain 45.6%.

By contrast, the current winner-take-all system gives Obama 67.8% of the EVs and McCain 32.2%, way off from the popular vote results.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Same information for the 2004 election. I'm just kind of killing time due to insomnia so if anyone spots any errors, let me know. Bush taking nearly 60% of Michigan's delegates seemed a bit strange unless I screwed up. Atlas only has Cong Dist results for some states so I had to resort to other sources.

West: 115
Midwest: 57
South: 115
Northeast: 25
312 electoral votes

West: 67
Midwest: 39
South: 44
Northeast: 76
226 electoral votes

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

And, 2000...

West: 106
Midwest: 51
South: 111
Northeast: 19
287 electoral votes

West: 70
Midwest: 50
South: 44
Northeast: 87
251 electoral votes

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

You see, Kerry loses MI, gets tied in MN, takes only 25% of OH seats despite losing the State by a 2% margin, and has only a 3 seats majority in PA.

Congressional districts suck.

There's no reason why voters in those congressional districts should have their votes disregarded just because another candidate won a larger artificial boundary they happen to be located within. If Michigan and Indiana happened to have been one state, I doubt you would think it fair that Bush took all the votes in all the districts of both states as he would under winner-take-all.

Congressional districts are far better than what we have now, and would be even better if we just stopped Republocrat gerrymandering.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

For example, currently the people in, say, KS-01 who vote for Democratic presidential candidates have their votes completely ignored once the whole state of Kansas elects a 100% Republican slate of electors.  If Maine-Nebraska were implemented, the people of KS-01 would still have their votes ignored once the district votes for its sole Republican elector.

But compare Nebraska and Kansas. Both states at-large voted about 56.5-41.6 McCain. Within them, however, NE-02 and KS-03 both voted about 51% for Obama. Nebraska cast one of its' electors to Obama and the people of NE-02 were represented. Kansas cast all of its electors for McCain and ignored the winner of KS-03. You think Kansas has the better system than Nebraska?

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

You clearly misunderstood my post if you think I believe that Kansas has the better system than Nebraska.  People who live in KS-03 who voted for Obama had their votes disregarded, but if Kansas used the Maine-Nebraska method, then the people in KS-03 who voted for McCain would have their votes disregarded instead.

But those are the two systems being compared here. One is used in 48 states, and the other, in 2.

One benefit of the Maine-Nebraska system, even if it didn't match up perfectly with the popular vote, is that it would make it worthwhile for candidates to spend time in places other than the big swing states. Obama had reason to pay attention to NE-02 (in fact I recall at one point the Obama campaign believed that winning that district was the key to coming out on top in a 269-269 tie they foresaw happening). A lot of districts in "safe" states would actually get some attention from the presidential candidates, since every single district would count equally.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

What about proportional representation?

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Libertas, how were you able to modify the numbers? Which sources did you use? Because I'd like to know how to make an EV map candidate by candidate.

You can modify the numbers manually.

When you put the map in your post, you'll see all the state abbreviations followed by three numbers. Change the second number.

AL=2;8;8

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Yes, some congressional districts would become more important under the district system (swing districts in non swing states) but just as many would become less so (non swing districts in swing states).

Why would a candidate spend a lot of time in safe districts anyway? I don't think there's any sensible system that would make it worthwhile for a candidate to focus a lot of resources on the Bronx or the Oklahoma panhandle.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Yes, some congressional districts would become more important under the district system (swing districts in non swing states) but just as many would become less so (non swing districts in swing states).

Why would a candidate spend a lot of time in safe districts anyway? I don't think there's any sensible system that would make it worthwhile for a candidate to focus a lot of resources on the Bronx or the Oklahoma panhandle.

Why is it any less sensible to attempt to get these votes than the votes of anyone else?

Well, for one thing, those voters aren't sensible to begin with.  McCain could have spent the whole campaign in D.C. and still not broken out of the single digits. Obama could have spent the whole campaign in Oklahoma and still not have broken 40%.

The candidates should focus on undecided voters who are willing to become informed on the choices they face, not on party-line hacks.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Yes, some congressional districts would become more important under the district system (swing districts in non swing states) but just as many would become less so (non swing districts in swing states).

Why would a candidate spend a lot of time in safe districts anyway? I don't think there's any sensible system that would make it worthwhile for a candidate to focus a lot of resources on the Bronx or the Oklahoma panhandle.

Popular vote. Could you imagine the rallies Obama could put together in the Bronx if he wanted to? On second thought, it's probably better not to...

I said sensible system. Thank you for illustrating another reason why using the national popular vote would be such a terrible system.