Q: What would the 2016 electoral vote have been if the votes were awarded by congressional district and the winner of each state got the two additional electoral votes for that state?
—Andy Sacks, Roswell
A: If electoral votes in 2016 had been allocated nationwide based upon congressional district (with the statewide winner receiving each state's additional two electoral votes), then Donald Trump would still be president — though by a smaller margin.
According to 270towin.com, an interactive Electoral College map, Trump’s official 306 electoral votes would have fallen to 290 under a congressional district allocation.
Hillary Clinton’s votes would have risen to 248.
Only Maine and Nebraska allocate their electoral votes in that manner. The other states, including Georgia, use a “winner-take-all” method, giving all of their electoral votes to the winner of that state’s popular vote.
Using the 270towin.com map, Georgia’s 16 electoral votes would have been split under the congressional district allocation into 12 electoral votes for Trump and four for Clinton.
Only six states and the District of Columbia would have sent all of their electors to Clinton. Similarly, only 12 states would have sent all of their electors to Trump.
However, these scenarios are based on results from campaigns that were run based on the current “winner-take-all” system. As 270towin.com states, there’s no way to know exactly how the map would have turned out if candidates knew their electoral votes relied upon winning congressional districts.
Fast Copy News Service wrote this column; Keith Still contributed. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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