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Monday, November 01, 2004
Baseball Playoffs and the Electoral College:
The American League Championship Series and the outcome has an interesting parallel to the 2000 Presidential election. Then-Governor Bush, of course, became President after a slew of lawsuits contesting the voting in Florida. Bush, after being declared the winner in Florida by 537 votes, won the Electoral College tally, and thus, the Presidency. Bitter Democrats like to cry that President Bush did not win the popular vote, therefore he should not be President.
After watching the ALCS, I thought I would compare the series to the election so that people perhaps could learn to understand the electoral process in America. Let's look at the 2000 popular vote and the 2004 ALCS run totals in comparison:
BUSH 50,456,002
GORE 50,999,897
YANKEES 45
SOX 41
Taken this way, the Yankees would have gone to the World Series, because... well, let's face it, they scored more runs. Right? Not so fast. A series is won when a team wins a number of games. Similarly, the Presidential election is won when a candidate wins a certain number of electoral votes. As such, the outcome changes a bit:
BUSH 271
GORE 266
*Note: One DC elector abstained.
YANKEES 3
SOX 4
As the rules of baseball dictate that a winner is determined by the games won in a series, the rules of electoral politics state that the winner is determined by the number of electoral votes given to that candidate. Best of 7. Best of 538.
Simple, huh? Well, you would certainly think so, but 2000 proved this concept to be very difficult for some to understand. Let's hope tomorrow is different.Labels: Archives_2004
.: posted by
Dave
12:43 PM
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