SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Did the Electoral College work the way it was meant to?

Dec 2, 2016, 5:54 PM | Updated: 5:59 pm

electoral college, vote, electors...

(AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger)

(AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger)

One of the advantages of having lost a huge percentage of my soul by working in Washington D.C. is that I got to know a lot of smart people in politics. Most of them hate me now. Because you’re not supposed to speak poorly about the party after you’ve worked for the party. Meanwhile, others turn out to be beneficial in such times to help understand why we need the Electoral College.

But a data head friend of mine, Patrick McGuinness, made an analysis that shows how isolated Hillary’s support was.

The notion promoted by the Left is that “my side didn’t win, so the system must be messed up.” And the Electoral College is often panned as a result.

Is it time to get rid of the 50 states?

There are 3,141 counties in the United States. Trump won about 2600 of them. Clinton won 400. In California, Clinton won 8.2 million to Trump’s 4.2 million; so 4 million more for Hillary. But in the other 49 states, Trump beat Hillary by 2 million votes.

And when you go dive even deeper, most of Clinton’s victories in California came from Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

Hillary had a lead from LA, Chicago, San Francisco and some areas of New York City that added up to around 4.8 million. In the roughly 3,000 counties beyond the hundred largest, Trump trounced Clinton by 11.5 million votes.

You cannot live in a country that you call a “United States” when you allow a handful of counties to make decisions for the entire country. You can’t be a united country that way. That’s why we have the Electoral College.

The Electoral College worked.

And the Democrats said before the election that if their side lost, they would live by the results. Now they are challenging the results.

As always, please listen to the full audio clip for complete context.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

FILE - A phone displays sports trades on Polymarket, April 16, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Je...

Associated Press

Polymarket paused international trading after a security issue involving a third-party provider

Polymarket temporarily halted trading on its international platform Thursday because of a security incident that compromised a third-party provider, the company said. Trading was paused for about an hour and resumed Thursday afternoon. The company has promised to fully reimburse any affected traders. The prediction market platform said it halted trading “out of an abundance […]

7 minutes ago

comcast...

MyNorthwest Staff

Comcast to lay off 159 workers in Washington as part of nationwide restructuring

Comcast plans to permanently lay off about 159 Washington employees as the company restructures.

16 minutes ago

FILE - Firearms training unit Detective Barbara J. Mattson, of the Connecticut State Police, holds ...

Associated Press

Sandy Hook families urge Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on AR-15-style rifles

Relatives whose loved ones were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are making an impassioned plea to the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on certain semiautomatic rifles, citing the high body counts and devastating injuries the weapons can inflict. The parents of five of the 20 first-graders killed in […]

35 minutes ago

FILE - The spire of the Baker-Berry Library stands above The Green at Dartmouth College in Hanover,...

Associated Press

Dartmouth provost resigns following accusations he used artificial intelligence for writing

A top administrator at Dartmouth College has resigned after a faculty committee found he used artificial intelligence to shape his writing, including in a guest column in The Washington Post on AI cheating. The announcement Wednesday of Provost Santiago Schnell’s departure from the Ivy League university comes as colleges across the country grapple with how […]

40 minutes ago

Patrick Stewart...

MARK KENNEDY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Patrick Stewart, stage giant also of ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ fame, dies at 86

Patrick Stewart, the classically trained stage actor who scaled the Shakespearean canon and added gravitas to "Star Trek" and "X-Men," has died.

49 minutes ago

Everett massage parlor...

Ania Keenan, KIRO 7 News

Eight massage businesses in Everett were condemned for safety and illegal activity

Eight massage businesses in Everett have been condemned for safety hazards and operating illicit massage parlors, according to the Everett Police and Fire Departments.

1 hour ago

Did the Electoral College work the way it was meant to?