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You Can Win the Presidency With 22% of the Vote

CGP Grey · explainer · Watch on YouTube

US politics & electionsProbability & game theory

What it is

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 Hacker News recommends it

Linked in electoral-system discussions as a quick, clear argument against the electoral college.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2015, last 2020

What HN commenters said

  1. “Some reasons why you shouldn't anymore (CGP Grey)”

    Explains why the electoral college is a bad system

    Someone1234, 2015-09 · Recommendation · in “What if states earned their Electoral College votes based on turnout?”

  2. “you can effectively become president if you can get the right 22% of the USA to vote for you.”

    Explains how a candidate can win with 22 percent of votes

    cyphar, 2016-10 · Recommendation · in “Could Twitter Be Better Off as a Nonprofit?”

  3. “Watch some of these videos from CGP Grey for more info”

    Debunks the claim that the electoral college protects small states

    nanny, 2020-11 · Recommendation · in “Looking for Voter Fraud (In Old Elections) with Data Visualization”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: cgp grey, electoral college, voting systems, us elections, popular vote

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