US Election Statistics

[Aardor]

Got the link from slashdot: https://www.msu.edu/~sheppa28/elections.html

How close were Presidential Elections?

This page answers the question:
What is the SMALLEST number of total votes that need to be switched from one candidate to another, and from which states, to affect the outcome of the election?

POPULAR VOTE
or
ELECTORAL VOTE?

Are you considering the Popular Vote or Electoral Vote?
Both! You can not correctly analyze U.S. Presidential Elections without taking both methods into account. The popular vote tells you if the candidate won the state or not, while the electoral vote tells you how much that state was 'worth' in that election.

It is possible to win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote, and therefore the election. It is also possible to win the election with less than 50% of the voting population. Both of these scenarios, as well as others, have happened in actual elections.

There have been 12 Presidential elections that were decided by less than a 1% margin; meaning if less than 1% of the voters in certain states had changed their mind to the other candidate the outcome of the entire election would have been different.

That is what this page solves. What is the smallest number of total votes that need to be switched from one candidate to another, and from which states, to affect the outcome of the election?

I find this site pretty interesting. So if 269 people in Florida had voted for Gore instead of Bush in 2000, Gore would have won the election. Pretty damn close for an election.

[Zaelath]

Hence: http://www.thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html

[Siji]

So if 269 less people in Florida had their votes thrown away in 2000, Gore would have won the election

Fixed.

[Avestan]

and if we had only recounted another 50 times, Gore would have won by 3 votes!

[Ashur]

WELCOME TO THE GREAT SCHLEP
The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama.

ROFL. Pulling out all the stops with this election... haha

This is hysterical. I keep picturing the guy from Requiem for a Dream trying to talk his hopped-up mom into voting for Obama.

[Chidoro]

All of that corrupt nonsense in FL was the deciding factor. It is what it was but it is very easy to bulldoze dopes.

[Siji]

and if we had only recounted another 50 times, Gore would have won by 3 votes!

Actually, I'd have been happy with completing one recount. Completing being the key word there.