Dewey 'wins' in 1948: Greater movement for Electoral College Reform?

pe1948whatif2.gif



Despite the 1948 Presidential election being an upset in terms of the popular vote, the election was indeed incredibly close in terms of the Electoral College. A change of 29,294 votes (0.06% of national total) from Truman to Dewey in three states would have resulted in a victory for Dewey. Ohio - 3,554 votes (0.12%); California - 8,933 votes (0.22%); Illinois - 16,807 votes (0.42%) giving Dewey a majority in the Electoral College. However, Truman would still have won the popular vote by over 2 million votes, or more than 4% of the national total, a much larger failure of First Past the Post than, say, 2000. Might this have led to calls for a fairer system of electing Presidents?
 

FDW

Banned
Maybe, but it would really take several such elections in a row for such a reform to actually be considered serious.
 
Maybe, but it would really take several such elections in a row for such a reform to actually be considered serious.

Or a much bigger discrepancy. I dont see how the swing can be so concentrated in just the correct states, so realistically, the discrepancy would be closer to 3.5%

I would bet it would get people arguing over the e.c., but it would take another injustice within 2 or 3 elections for it to really sink in.

It is theoretically possible to win the presidency with less than 25% of the popular vote, when the other guy has 75%+. Mind you, its never been even close to that bad.
 
Top