Wreckorder

by fgs gujilde

Winners who lost, losers who won

I wrote before there is sport in every aspect of life, especially politics. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the recent US elections where many were confused with how they elect their
president, some Americans included.

What on earth is the system of electoral college? Why two separate counts for popular vote and
electoral college race to 270? Unlike us who directly vote our president, the Americans indirectly
vote theirs. If a candidate wins the popular vote in one state regardless of margin, he gets all the
electoral college votes based on population.

Let us exemplify by using 220,000 voters from 3 states with 40,000, 70,000 and 110,000 voters
represented by 4, 7 and 11 electors, respectively, or a total of 22. The first to obtain majority of 12
wins:

State 1 State 2 State 3

Candidate 40,000 4 70,000 7 110,000 11 Votes won Electors won
A 15,000 0 60,000 7 50,000 0 125,000 7
B 25,000 4 10,000 0 60,000 11 95,000 15

Even if A obtained 30,000 more votes, B still wins because he obtained majority electoral votes
from the 2 states he won regardless of margin. Just like volleyball where teams race to 25 points
to win a set and the first to win 3 out of 5 sets wins the match. Let us illustrate if it goes the
distance:

Team 1st Set 2nd Set 3rd Set 4th Set 5th Set Points won Sets won
A 25 25 20 20 10 100 2
B 5 10 25 25 15 80 3

Having won 3 sets to 2, Team B still wins the match even if it won only 80 points against 100
points of Team A. This winner-take-all scheme tests consistency. It may not make sense within
context of elections in a representative government such as ours where all government authority
emanates from the people, best concretized by their power to directly vote for their
representatives. But suffrage only works if based on a free and informed choice. Even then,
information is one thing, education is another. Oddly, wisdom is not taught. One dumb vote
counts as much as one smart vote.

Had Joe Biden lost to Donald Trump in the electoral vote despite leading by at least 4 million
votes, Americans would have revisited their antiquated system that robbed them of their choice
at least five times in history. In 2000, Al Gore lost to George W. Bush, 266-271, despite obtaining
half a million more votes, but conceded like a statesman would. Four years ago, Trump stunned
the world when he upset Hillary Clinton by geographical accident, 304-227. Despite obtaining 2.8
million more votes, Hillary was stood up by her date with history. But she conceded, like a
gracious lady would, in public at least. Now someone lost both counts but refuses to concede.
Surprise, he’s not a Filipino candidate.

Among others, the electoral college system was introduced in the 18th century because voters
lacked resources to be fully informed about the candidates. Today information is at the tip of our
fingers and at the cusp of wagging tongues of fake news reporters. Exactly why we are over-
informed but misinformed. I wish we neutralize these peddlers by using our fingers responsibly,
especially the middle.