Election 2000: What If The Electoral Votes Were Distributed Via Congressional District?

U. S. Election Atlas ^ | June 18, 2002 | Recovering_Democrat

[Recovering_Democrat]

The Election Atlas is a great resource, and since I had some time on my hands recently I decided to use it to research the 2000 election a bit. You may know Maine and Nebraska distribute their electoral votes differently than the other 49 bodies (48 states and DC). In all other states, the electoral votes are given a "winner take all" status: thus George W. Bush got all 25 of Florida's votes, even though he only won the state by 537 votes.

Electoral votes, you remember, are representative of each states Congressional delegation: Florida has 23 House seats and two Senators...equaling 25 votes. Montana has one House seat and two Senators...equaling three votes.

Maine and Nebraska distribute their electoral votes thusly: the candidate who wins a particular congressional district gets the electoral vote. The candidate who wins the statewide vote gets TWO electoral votes: the votes represented by the state's two senators.

I wondered what would have happened in the 2000 election if each state followed the same rules as Nebraska and Maine. Here is the summary of what I found:

George W. Bush wins the Electoral College.
Final Vote: 283-264.

[pawdoggie]

Now that's funny!

[FreedomFriend]

I got the feeling that San Luis Obispo County was more Conservative than the neighboring Coastal California Counties, and it appears that I was right.