The popular vote and the Electoral College

graphic credit: XaniaTube

Mr. Instapundit comments:  

THE NARRATIVE CHANGES TO FIT THE NEEDS OF THE MOMENT: “I am already seeing Democrats blaming the Electoral College, which until a few hours ago was hailed as the great protector of Democratic virtue for decades to come, and Republicans were silly for not understanding how to crack the blue ‘wall.'”

Dems were praising the Electoral College just before the 2000 election, too, back when they thought Al Gore might win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote. They turned on a dime when the reverse happened, of course.

Not all the votes are tabulated, and not all of them will be, but even if Hillary does win the popular vote, Trump won by a yuge margin in the Electoral College. I was interested to find something of a refresher course in a column (“Hillary wins the Popular Vote – Not”) at American Thinker, by Steve Feinstein. Here are some extracts:

Okay, let’s address this “Hillary might win the popular vote, isn’t that Electoral College situation just awful” thing head on.

No, it’s not awful.  It’s great, and it protects the importance of your vote.  It’s also uniquely American and demonstrates yet again the once-in-creation brilliance of the Founding Fathers.

First of all, she’s probably not going to win the actual number of votes cast.  She may win the number of votes counted, but not the votes cast.

States don’t count their absentee ballots unless the number of outstanding absentee ballots is larger than the state margin of difference.  If there is a margin of 1,000 votes counted and there are 1,300 absentee ballots outstanding, then the state tabulates those.  If the number of outstanding absentee ballots wouldn’t influence the election results, then the absentee ballots aren’t counted. [UPDATE 11/12: this paragraph proves to be incorrect. Absentee ballots ARE counted, but often not until after the Election is called. IOW, the popular vote totals will change.] 

. . .

Getting back to the “win the popular vote/lose the Electoral College” scenario: Thank G-d we have that, or else California and N.Y. would determine every election.  Every time.

. . .

That means that the vast majority of 48 states and their populations will be subject to the whim and desire of just two states.  If those two states have similar demographics and voting preferences at any particular point in time (which they do now), then those two states call the shots for the entire country.

But the Electoral College brilliantly smooths out the variances in the voting proclivities among states and regions.  Farmers in the middle of the country and importers and exporters on the shore get roughly equal say, as do Madison Ave. execs and factory workers in Tennessee.

Shortcomings?  Sure.  The E.C. can make an R vote meaningless in a very few heavily D states or vice versa.  But without the Electoral College, the country’s entire population is subject to the disproportionate voting preferences of the few most populous states.

The entire article is here.

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Veterans Day: Thank You

image credit: plusquotes.com

  Today is Veterans Day, the official United States public holiday that honors military veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces. 

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About those polls: mistakes or lies?

Image credit: NowProphecy

The Hill reports that

Pollsters and election modelers suffered an industry-shattering embarrassment at the hands of Donald Trump on Tuesday night.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, had long said the polls were biased against him. His claims — dismissed and mocked by the experts — turned out to be true.

“It’s going to put the polling industry out of business,” said CNN anchor Jake Tapper. “It’s going to put the voter projection industry out of business.”

This is rich. Tapper is shocked, shocked I tell you, that the polling industry got it wrong, so embarrassingly wrong. Tapper knows full well that CNN has been in collusion with the polling industry that DELIBERATELY manipulated the numbers. Sundance has been tracking this racket for years, and today he summarized his research during the 2015-16 election cycle:

THE MEDIA DIDN’T GET IT WRONG –  The pollsters did not work from the wrong data set; the media pollsters, consultants and professional political class did not work from the wrong assumptions, or use the incorrect baselines…..  THEY LIED.

The professional media polling agents knew exactly what the truth was. They lied and manipulated their data in a concerted effort to intentionally falsify reality. There should be no doubt, EVER, in the mind of any political observer as to what took place within the expressed and broadcast polling which fueled over two years of broadcast news. The media intentionally lied.

They knew the truth. The same tools available to us, and to those who were ridiculed for truth-telling, were available to them and many more. They did not get it wrong. They chose to lie to you the American electorate. So let’s name the liars so their names can forever be dispatched from the land where credibility is of value:

• Fox News, pollster Daron Shaw, Shaw Research and associates and the Wall Street Journal. Rupert Murdoch.
• NBC News, pollster Mark Murray, Hart Research and Associates.
• Monmouth University, pollster Patrick Murray.
• CBS News and New York Times writ large.
• ABC News and The Washington Post.
• CNN News Network and ORC Polling.
• Rasmussen and Reuters Polling Operations.

These individuals along with every single corporate national media polling outlet, which in turn contributed to -and skewed- the larger aggregate of the Real Clear Politics average of polls, were complicit in their intent to deceive the American electorate in an ideological scheme to manipulate the psyche of the American voter.

. . .

They did not make mistakes; they did not operate from the wrong assumptions.  These organizations, as part of the larger corporate objectives from those who fund their endeavors, lied. Allowing them to say they made a mistake is only dooming ourselves to the continued cycle of battered electorate syndrome.

. . .

There’s more at his blog post. And for icing on the cake, Sundance reproduces tweets and headlines from polling guru Nate Silver on Trump's candidacy. Go here and scroll down to see the composite of Silver’s propaganda. (If you want to get into the weeds to see HOW they lie, here's an earlier blog by Sundance with a detailed analysis.)

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The next President

photo credit: CNN

Our new President-Elect

Congratulations, especially to all you Deplorables!

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VOTE

It's Today. 

V O T E  !

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Get Out The Vote event : Photo gallery

photo credit: newbostonpost

Decision 2016: Get Out The Vote Battleground State Bus Tour

Last Saturday, the Great America Pac “Decision 2016: Get Out The Vote Battleground State Bus Tour” came to the Cleveland area (the Holiday Inn in Independence). Speakers included

• Sheriff David Clarke (his remarks are here) 
• Former Navy Seal Carl Higbie
• Jessica Jane Duff
• Larry Elder
• Jay Hoffman

Here are a few photos of the event.

Jessie Jane Duff

Larry Elder

Carl Higbie

image credit: canivote.org

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The election and Conservative values

image credit: moviehole

...and Tea Party values

A blogger called The Z Man offers some thoughts about what’s going on with this election (h/t Bookworm):

A theme here over the years has been the fact that the Conservative Movement has managed to conserve nothing. The reason they are in a crisis is the same reason a losing ball coach finds himself in jeopardy. People will tolerate only so much losing. A salesman, who cannot close deals, gets fired, even if he is the nicest guy in the world. What’s happening today is Official Conservatism™ is being fired.

. . .

Official Conservatism™ hates Donald Trump and they hate the people voting for him. That’s been a bit of an eye-opener for people. When [Fox News’ Brit] Hume detailed Trump’s deviationism, he was dismissive and condescending. He then had that gold plated phony George Will come in and dismiss Trump and the people supporting him as knaves and fools. The segment was ostensibly about Official Conservatism™, but it was really just an excuse for the two of them to bash Trump. 

. . .

there’s the creeping realization that their brand of conservatism is all hat and no cattle. Their moral preening and appeals to as yet undefined principles are just postures. 

Read the rest here. And VOTE.