Sun Jun 1, 12:57 PM Pacific • posted by Jed Lewison
The Other National Popular Vote Myth
As I argue below, it's a mistake to argue the national popular vote on the basis of numbers, or how to count it; the concept itself is flawed.
At the same time, I know that my position on this is a minority position and most people will choose to focus on the numbers.
Given that, it's worth nothing that heading into today, Barack Obama's lead over Hillary Clinton in the so-called popular vote was 276,408 in contests that were used to select delegates. (This is according to RealClearPolitics.)
Assuming that CNN"s estimate of turnout in Puerto Rico is accurate (they say 425,000 is the upper end of turnout), then there is no chance that Hillary Clinton will overtake Barack Obama in the so-called popular vote category.
So even by Clinton's own flawed metric, she fails. But again, this isn't the real reason that her argument is wrong. The real reason is that each nominating contests in each state has different rules and procedures; adding them all together makes as much sense as saying that the Seattle Mariners with 22 wins have already had a better season than the New England Patriots with 18.