US Politics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome

Also will be interesting to see what Trump tries to get through before he's out.

Christ hadn't even thought of this

electoral college votes proportionaly allocated per state

They already are based on population. How the votes are apportioned to each candidate is up to each state. It's not a perfect system.

It's interesting to look at the interactive maps of the US vote counts - you can spot the counties with major cities by the colour. The clearly town / country gap in politics in the US is staggering to see.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/us2020/results

On a smaller scale, Mississippi has decided to move from a Electoral College style system to a popular vote to choose the Governor.

Also will be interesting to see what Trump tries to get through before he's out.

A bunch of pardons, I reckon. I don't think he'll be interested in anything other than saving himself, will be interesting to see if he 'admits' to things that weren't even out in the open yet.

And the shouting about the legal processes in the coming weeks will provide a useful smokescreen for him and his cronies, whatever happens.

There's parallels with our fptp system isn't there?

Yes, I remember the vote for AV that got shut down pretty harshly.

the votes are apportioned to each candidate is up to each state. It's not a perfect system.

I did not know this.

So, it is perfectly legit (for e.g.) for Pennsylvania to decide to give 10 EC votes to Trump and 10 to Biden?

Depends on what that state has chosen

There is a state that does this, read about it somewhere yesterday.

Maine does things differently

Maine and Nebraska sort of do this....

Using the 'congressional district method', these states allocate two electoral votes to the state popular vote winner, and then one electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each Congressional district (2 in Maine, 3 in Nebraska). This creates multiple popular vote contests in these states, which could lead to a split electoral vote.

So, it is perfectly legit (for e.g.) for Pennsylvania to decide to give 10 EC votes to Trump and 10 to Biden?

Maine and Nebraska do this (sort of).

Also, each EV corresponds to an actual person who is sent to vote for who becomes president. It is perfectly legal for that person to decide to vote for someone else.

If Biden only manages the bare minimum 270 EVs then he's dependent on all 270 pledged voters to actually vote for him.

Although I read somewhere that other states looked at doing this but came to the conclusion that the result would likely lead to a less representative assignment of seats than the current method. I can't remember the reasoning, will try and dig it out.

I think the basic theory was you'd probably end up splitting into a republican safe seat and a democrat safe seat so votes against the grain wouldn't be worth much but if you kept the state together then those edge votes may swing the state.

It was Nebraska that I read about it.

It is perfectly legal for that person to decide to vote for someone else.

I believe that is actually not the case - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiafalo_v._Washington

Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case on the issue of "faithless electors" in the Electoral College stemming from the 2016 United States presidential election where the Court ruled unanimously that states have the ability to enforce an elector's pledge in presidential elections.

can someone please explain the significance of 'calling'? i understand what it is, but why is more than just looking like a dick because you celebrated early??

VAR for voting would sort this mess out.

I guess it's part of a bigger plan of destabilizing the trust in the results?

Apparently, it's up to news outlets to call who wins a state, it's not done officially. I think AP is the most trusted source, oddly followed by FOX

Typically a candidate will concede before all the votes are in. Does that make sense?

That's why it was so significant that this time Biden said they'd wait for every vote to be counted. It is not the norm to want every single vote, because that would take forever and normally you don't need to.

oddly followed by FOX

In honesty I think they've been fine during the actual election counting. They are their usual selves outside the counts but for calling states etc they seem to be quite restrained.

Presumably he's saying it to highlight that Trump wants to bust his W I N N I N G load earlier than any sane person would.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College#Summary

Even though the aggregate national popular vote is calculated by state officials, media organizations, and the Federal Election Commission, the people only indirectly elect the president. The president and vice president of the United States are elected by the Electoral College, which consists of 538 electors from the fifty states and Washington, D.C. Electors are selected state-by-state, as determined by the laws of each state. Since the election of 1824, the majority of states have chosen their presidential electors based on winner-take-all results in the statewide popular vote on Election Day.[82] As of 2020, Maine and Nebraska are exceptions as both use the congressional district method; Maine since 1972 and in Nebraska since 1996.[83] In most states, the popular vote ballots list the names of the presidential and vice presidential candidates (who run on a ticket). The slate of electors that represent the winning ticket will vote for those two offices. Electors are nominated by a party and pledged to vote for their party's candidate.[citation needed] Many states require an elector to vote for the candidate to which the elector is pledged, and most electors do regardless, but some "faithless electors" have voted for other candidates or refrained from voting.

Would've loved to hear this call: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-tv-coverage-idUSKBN27J1A8

States need to be called because the formal declaration of the final result can happen days or weeks after the election, even when there's a clear winner.