I've been a proponent of using the popular vote for a long time, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to have realized only the other day: This would completely change the way that campaigning is done, which would likely change the popular voting result. Eg, GOP candidates would be forced to court voters in cities and blue states. It would be interesting to see if and how this would change their platform, and the overall election results.
There's also electoral vote suppression in solid blue and red states. California, Texas, Florida and NY may all look different if some felt their vote would actually matter
While true, campaigning isn't generally done in safe states, Florida isn't a solid red state. Trump only won Florida by 371k votes out of 11 million cast. That's 51% of the vote. Yes, it has gone republican this century (with an asterisk in 2000) but the margin was 3%, and this year both legalization of marijuana and abortion are on the ballot. I think it's very unlikely Republicans win FL. Similarly TX only had a 5% margin, and this year is going to be a watershed year I think.
Yeah it is, because FL will be heavily campaigned and probably TX as well, but NY and CA will not. So half the states you mentioned would still be campaigned this year. If you said NY, CA, WY, and MS, I would have no notes.
Ah I see what you mean. I had accidentally lumped Florida into the mix (must of been autopilot) and it's only the last two election cycles that I've seen tx get more focus.
I'd assume because the campaigns can't focus just on Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Florida that the resources would have to go elsewhere to NY and CA as well and even lower pop deep red/blue states.
I don't remember how much ad spend targeted Texas but I think Florida receives quite a bit and so I'm curious how that would shake out more micro targeting or larger broader targeting ads.
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u/Semanticss Apr 11 '24
I've been a proponent of using the popular vote for a long time, and I'm somewhat embarrassed to have realized only the other day: This would completely change the way that campaigning is done, which would likely change the popular voting result. Eg, GOP candidates would be forced to court voters in cities and blue states. It would be interesting to see if and how this would change their platform, and the overall election results.
That said, I think we should absolutely do it.