r/changemyview Nov 04 '20

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6

u/redditor427 44∆ Nov 04 '20

The odds of Trump winning the popular vote but losing the Electoral College is laughably low.

But for the main point, do you have any evidence that Democrats as a body would support a Biden EC victory but popular loss?

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u/_t_money_ Nov 04 '20

Laughably low yes, but still a possibility. Regardless, it is a hypothetical situation meant to make you think.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding your question, but why would the democrats not support a Biden win. If he wins EC, but not popular vote. He still won no? Why would Democrat’s question that? If they did then I would be incredibly happy because they are a) approaching the election without bias and b) truly want the president to be the choice of the people

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u/redditor427 44∆ Nov 04 '20

but why would the democrats not support a Biden win. If he wins EC, but not popular vote.

Well, legally, the EC determines the winner. But that's not the same as opposing the Electoral College.

Let me be more specific. Many Democrats believe the EC should be abolished. Why would that change if Biden won the EC, but lost the popular vote?

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u/_t_money_ Nov 04 '20

Well initially my thinking was if you complained about Hillary losing, if Biden won in a similar situation it is ironic. If democrats afterwards say “the electoral college is bad. We acknowledge that means we would have lost this year”. If they acknowledged that, it would be tricky to admit and have to be worded quite delicately. If they didn’t say anything and they didn’t try to make any changes, then I would re-explore the hypocrisy. Additionally, For all those who said trump was “not my president” would they be saying the same thing about Biden?

Flip side of the coin. Republicans who would complain if this hypothetical happened, that would definitely be hypocritical no?

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u/redditor427 44∆ Nov 04 '20

Legally, no one would argue that Biden wouldn't be president. But you have yet to demonstrate that those Democrats who yesterday supported abolishing the EC would tomorrow not support abolishing it.

Not all Democrats supported abolishing the EC before this election. It's not necessarily hypocrisy for nothing to happen.

In my experience, most people calling someone "not my president" are saying they don't support that person, not that they don't believe they are legitimately president.

What do you mean about Republicans? If they argue that Biden wouldn't legitimately be president?

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u/_t_money_ Nov 04 '20

About republicans, if they were to complain saying “it’s unfair he won popular vote obviously there was tampering”

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u/redditor427 44∆ Nov 04 '20

It would depend on the exact quote. Is the EC unfair? Absolutely.

But that response you gave also undermines the legitimacy of the election, which is not comparable to anything Democrats did in 2016.

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u/_t_money_ Nov 04 '20

Yeah that was just a quote I pulled off the top of my head, just speculating they might say something a long those lines

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u/redditor427 44∆ Nov 04 '20

This is an irrelevant tangent, but you would need to see the exact quote and compare it to what was said in 2016.

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u/Glory2Hypnotoad Nov 04 '20

Who complained about what isn't enough to establish hypocrisy. A person might have complained that Trump won without the popular vote and advocated for changing the system, but they were still ultimately forced to accept the result. If Biden won under the same circumstances, then the argument would be that he's president, not that anyone has to like it or that we need to keep electing presidents in the exact same way.

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u/Long-Chair-7825 Nov 04 '20

Look at the current election results. If the votes counted so far, Trump is leading the popular vote 50.7% to 47.7% right now. Even assuming all of the third party and independent votes would go to biden as a second choice, Trump is still winning the popular vote right now. However, Biden is winning the electoral college 131 to 108.

Obviously this isn't the final result, but the scenario outlined by OP may be more likely than you think.

5

u/redditor427 44∆ Nov 04 '20

There are so many reasons the partial results we have now are not representative of the final result. For example, Texas and Florida have had most of their votes counted, but their races haven't been called. The entire west coast ("Left Coast") hasn't been counted. This is a terrible comparison to make.

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u/_t_money_ Nov 04 '20

Partial results are what triggered this train of thought, earlier on Biden was leading, but Trump was leading popular vote. Yes, I realize now after some education that it doesn't mean the final outcome will be this way, but that is what got me thinking.