THE VIDEO SHELF · us electoral college
You Can Win the Presidency With 22% of the Vote
A short CGP Grey animation showing how the US electoral college lets a candidate win the presidency with as little as about 22 percent of the popular vote. It lays out the arithmetic of winning states by narrow margins.
Why HN readers recommended it
Linked in electoral-system discussions as a quick, clear argument against the electoral college.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- CGP Grey
- Topic
- us electoral college
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 3
- HN mentions in dataset
- 6
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2015–2020
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
Some reasons why you shouldn't anymore (CGP Grey): [LINK] [VIDEO] Even in the UK, where the concept originates, a lot of people view it as a bad idea. The issue right now is that nobody can agree what to change it to, since people gravitate …
Someone1234 on Hacker News · 2015-09
In What if states earned their Electoral College votes based on turnout?> It's been around for a couple of hundred years so it can't be that terrible. Heh. If only everything that is old was good. The all-or-nothing electoral college system: 1. Removes power from all people, because they vote for electors not for the actual …
cyphar on Hacker News · 2016-10
In Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?>The electoral college is a form of protection for the naturally less densely populated agrarian states against the densely populated urban ones. This is commonly repeated, but it's BS. What "protection" does the electoral college give to Kansas, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Idaho, or Montana? Presidential …
nanny on Hacker News · 2020-11
In Looking for Voter Fraud (In Old Elections) with Data Visualization
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.