A tiny, tiny minority decided the 2016 election.

[MineralMan]

An incredibly small minority, as a matter of fact. Less than 100,000 voters in three specific states made spiteful choices that led to Donald Trump's victory, despite his losing the national popular vote by over 3 million votes.

On this day before Trump might do something irrevocable, I invite everyone to consider that and offer up their opinion of those fewer than 100,000 people in WI, MI and PA. Who were those voters? I don't care. I don't know, and I don't care.

Here are my words for them:

Damn You for Your Spite!

[jodymarie aimee]

1. 50% of voters

did NOT vote in the entire country. It is not just those 3 states. Half the country stayed home.

[MineralMan]

3. The election, like all elections, was decided by those who voted.

Those who did not vote did not care, apparently, so I have no words for them. Those who vote decide.

I'm speaking to fewer than 100,000 of those people. Only to those people.

[progree]

42. The gory details: Trump margins: PA: 0.73%, WI: 0.77%, MI: 0.23%

Last edited Sun Apr 16, 2017, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)

[font face = courier new]
Wikipedia visited 1/17/17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016

Trump vote to Clinton vote:

# Pennsylvania: 2,970,733 to 2,926,441 delta = 44,292 (48.58% to 47.85%, delta = 0.73% )
` ` ` ` Stein: 0.82%, Johnson: 2.40%

# Wisconsin: 1,405,284 to 1,382,536 delta = 22,748 (47.22% to 46.45%, delta = 0.77% )
` ` ` ` Stein: 1.04%, Johnson: 3.58%

# Michigan: 2,279,543 to 2,268,839 delta = 10,704 (47.50% to 47.27%, delta = 0.23% )
` ` ` ` Stein: 1.07%, Johnson: 3.59%

# Sum of the 3 states: 77,744 , or about 78,000

----------------------------
Nationwide: Trump 62,979,879 (46.1%) Clinton 65,844,954 (48.2%) Delta (for Clinton this time) = 2,865,075 and 2.1%[/font]

[FDRsGhost]

4. Yup! There it is!

The real figure of how 50% of voters stayed home. That is where the focus should be.

[jodymarie aimee]

8. Exactly

thank you.

[jodymarie aimee]

18. Here you go

Samuel Jackson did an ad...note he said WHEN WE STAYED HOME, WE GOT TRUMP. Didn't mention your 3 states.

Samuel L. Jackson evokes 'Pulp Fiction' in radio ad for Georgia election that has GOP on edge

[synergie]

35. Please note that Mr. Jackson wasn't doing analysis of data, nor does

an ad for a Georgia House race have anything to do with states outside of Georgia and what went on in the General Presidential Election.

In MI, where the margin was 10,000 votes, even with the shady business of vote suppression and broken counting machines etc., the number of people who stated they'd be staying home because they didn't get their way in the primaries and who spouted a lot of horse puckey about "rigging" and how both parties are the same and a bunch of other malarkey, those messages and the effect they had cannot be ignored.

[jackssonjack]

17. Why don't you write your own OP about it?

It's a topic that should be explored. Why aren't people voting? How can we get them to vote?

This OP is about voters who made poor choices and now wish to portray themselves as not culpable for the results of the election in any way.

I agree with Mineral Man. Those people are pretty selfish, it also reeks of entitlement. I think the many comments akin to " I voted to send a message" or "I stayed home because the Democrats need to learn a lesson" really highlight this point. They, unlike some others who don't vote, knew what the consequences would be if Trump won the election and they voted or stayed home out of spite and meanness. They voted their consciences. Which begs the question: What sort of conscience does one really have if their votes helped seat someone like Trump?

[Sancho]

2. The tiny minority were some Russian programmers and Trump associates....

along with GOPers who helped it along.

Likely less than 100 people...many less than 100,000.

[MineralMan]

6. While they may have influenced some voters,

they did not vote. It is still those who voted who made the decision on their votes.

Only those who actually vote actually matter, really. Fewer than 100,000 people, altogether, in three states decided who sits in the White House.

[Sancho]

14. Since I've witnessed a DRE flipping votes here in Fl....

and demonstrated it to the Election Supervisor...I disagree....

[synergie]

36. They brainwashed a bunch of people who believed the lies and the propaganda they

spread on the right and the left.

Those "100" people were influencing hundreds of thousands in the country. Most of whom rose above that programming when they say what Trump was about and voted for the only qualified candidate on the ballot.

Far too many others stayed at home patting themselves on their back for their purity, or voted 3rd party as they were bade to by those Russian minorities and the other actors who were pretending to be on their side, as they pushed Stein et al. There were also those who were told they could go in and write in invalid names, and many did, while leaving the rest of the ballot blank. They screwed the country over and themselves with their tantrums. Those local races are only going to affect their own families after all.

[samnsara]

5. a tiny tiny minority of the voters....

...fuck them. I hope they keep their stupid giant trump signs up so when there is war we know whose doors to go banging on.

[MineralMan]

7. That minority did not vote for Donald Trump.

They had no Trump signs.

[synergie]

37. These were the ones sporting Stein signs, or who claim to be so pure and so

smart that they ate up the toxic sludge they were fed and refused to even bother to vote, or wasted their votes on write in candidates who TOLD them not to be stupid, but of course the pure ones knew better.

[DaleFromWPB]

9. More than one way to view this

62 million though Trump was the best choice for them.
65 million thought Sec. Clinton was the best choice.

Sec Clinton won the coasts and urban areas.
Trump won the suburbs and open areas.

The Electoral college isn't going away and Interstate Popular vote compact has no chance of becoming reality.

We have to do three things:
Elect Democrats at EVERY level
Fight gerrymandering (even in the states where we benefit)
Get Democrats to the polls to vote

Other associated issues:
Elect Dems to county commission seats (or whoever determines poll locations and hours)
Start an outreach program to get a valid ID for anyone that needs one
Spend some money in the red states (the Kansas loss is a disgrace, more money might have swung that election)
Find younger candidates that appeal to the younger demographic (yea, I about Bernie)


Until we devote money and people to these things, we're just shouting at the clouds.
I fear that we're on our to becoming a permanent minority party.

We have to start at the local levels and take back Statehouses in every election, take back the House in 2018 and the Senate & White House in 2020.

[MineralMan]

11. Agreed on all counts. Assuming we survive, anyhow.

[synergie]

39. Will you cut that out? We're not feeble, we're not terminal and our survival is not

in question. Stop playing into these media and disruptor narratives, and take a look at what Democrats are actually out there doing.

[maxsolomon]

24. Another piece: Vote by Mail

it's proven to increase turnout, and that's why the GOP opposes it. higher turnout, dems win.

[a kennedy]

10. Makes me feel so embarrassed and angry for my birth State.

[MineralMan]

12. As I am for my neighboring state of Wisconsin.

[mcar]

15. PA native here

I'm right there with you.

[Bettie]

21. Wisconsin, born and raised

I have no idea what happened to the state I grew up in.

Wait, yes I do.

Religion. They preach politics from the pulpit and people do as they are told.

[a kennedy]

41. Live just across the boarder from La Crosse......

in Dakota, MN and hated MN when I moved here 17 years ago......now, I'm proud of my two Senators, and my Governor.

[Bettie]

43. I currently live in the hellscape that is Iowa

I have zero representation in either house of Congress or in our statehouse.

[we can do it]

33. I'm also disgusted by my birth state of Ohio.

[mcar]

13. Trump can draft their kids first

Cause he ain't getting mine.

[brush]

16. The figure often cited is 70 some thousand votes in three states

An earlier post talked about how fiercely trump's attorneys fought against auditing the voting machines in Wi., Mi., and Penn. instead opting to allow only recounting the existing ballots in Stein's recount attempt, which of course would only yield the same results.

If there was tampering with the voting machines, as the trump attorneys strenuous efforts to deny an audit suggests, that 70,000 vote win margin is really only half that as tampered/switched votes actually are counted twice.

For instance, if you take one vote from the Clinton column and switch it into a trump vote that means one less vote for her and one more vote for him. Here's a simple example: Clinton has 15 votes, trump has 10. Switch on vote to trump from Clinton and she now has 14 and he has 11. So if that was done in the 70,000 votes in those three states, all that had to be tampered with/switched would be one more than half of those votes — roughly 35,001.

[MineralMan]

20. Yes. That's why I rounded it up. It may be that some of the Johnson votes, too

were spite votes against Hillary Clinton. There's no way to accurately quantify any of that, though.

[L. Coyote]

28. It is under 80,000, more than 70,000.

Easy to look up.

Remember that Bush meme?

[brush]

29. Whatever the actual number, just one more than half would have to be switched.

[synergie]

40. I saw those gangs of Trump attorneys in MI.

They did everything in their power to drag out that recount, and wasted as much time as possible.

There was tampering for sure in MI. We saw evidence in WI, and they wouldn't even look in PA, there were concerns about FL too.

This is of course in addition to the active voter suppression, Cross check etc. those votes were in the hundreds of thousands, where people actually got to the polls and were denied, or given provisional ballots which may or may not have been counted or considered "spoiled".

[RockCreek]

19. Remember the cyber manipulation

The Facebook postings by Russia, etc, were designed to manipulate people into staying home. It was not a completely free decision for many who stayed home. The psychological manipulation to increase disgust and helplessness and hopelessness is just as bad as that designed to flip voters.

[MineralMan]

22. Only those who voted really matter in any election.

People who are that easily manipulated might not vote the way you'd think anyhow. But, they didn't vote at all, so their votes are not part of the tally. They simply don't get counted at all, and have no impact on the outcome. I'll worry about them for future elections, but they don't really matter in the 2016 election. They didn't bother to vote their preference at all.

[Hekate]

23. Not to mention the much larger numbers who sat on their butts at home. Your point is well taken.

[B2G]

25. Um, no.

If the rest hadn't voted as they did, it wouldn't even have come down to those 100K.

[L. Coyote]

26. Less than 40,000 voters. You know the adage, switched votes count twice.

If 40,000 voters had voted differently (or if 40,000 fewer votes had been switched) you would be adding 40,000 to one column while subtracting 40,000 from the other, thereby altering the Electoral College outcome (as may well have happened).

[dchill]

30. +1000

[we can do it]

34. Yes. Math is fundamental, like reading.

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. I cant, when I did I was reprimanded.

[benld74]

31. Overall total number of votes cast were DOWN since 2012 and 2008 as well

WHY not voting in this election?
WHERE the heck were these voters?
WHO were these voters?
I'm sure it is known somewhere, but not in this article.
THAT is the REAL STORY!!!!


For their spite as well for not voting!

[elleng]

32. Forget the 'spite' b.s., please.

People were and are hurting in a difficult economy, and right-wing propaganda is hugely successful, has been for a long time.

[MineralMan]

45. Well, I hope they're doing much better now, then.

[no_hypocrisy]

38. I know one of them.

He was a Bernie supporter originally. When HRC got the nomination, he turned to Trump. He couldn't stand the idea of a woman as his president. Ironically about two months before the election, his first child was born, a daughter. He wasn't thinking of her. He wasn't thinking of his wife, who has a Ph.D. He was thinking about how the world should be, his world.

[jimjc]

44. vote fraud

I don't believe the vote totals in MI. WISC. PA. I believe it was fixed....no proof yet but I believe it will be proved....