Hacker News Reader

Due to the electoral college system, correlation between "voting for Trump" and "wanting Trump as a president" isn't 100%, so you I'm not sure you can make strong conclusions based on 2.2% difference in popular vote.

View on HN

Yet... Depending on how the rules of the game work the outcomes are totally different. Worth pointing out.

No, the point is, depending on the rules of the game, people vote differently. E.g. under the current system it makes no sense for republicans in NY and CA to vote... If the popular vote actually counted, the popular vote would be different (it's like quantum mechanics applied to psychology - if people know that you observe them, they change their behaviour)!

Not voting because of being in a red/blue state seems to happen to both parties. A change to the voting system would probably change behavior and (hopefully) increase voter turnout in general. :)

Though if we look at where the majority of the population lives (NY/CA) and how blue those states are he has a point here.

Speculation nonetheless though.

He has half a point. The other half is that a lot of democrats avoid voting as well, since their state is already blue.

And vice versa on both counts for red states.

Depending on the rules of the game, people also campaign differently.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com