Reply #149: Nader didn't win enough votes in ANY state to have effected [View All]

the outcome.

For example, Nader only won 20,000 votes in Tennessee - not enough to have off-set Gore's loss in his home state. If those 20,000 had voted for Gore - and I doubt all of them would have anyway - he STILL wouldn't have had enough to carry Tennessee.

And, let's not forget, if Gore had won his home state, he'd be president regardless of what happened in Florida and with the Supreme Court.

Nationally, Nader's total vote count might have made a difference, but that's not how we elect presidents. We elected them state-by-state with the winner-take-all Electoral College system.

Want to both protect Dem nominees in close states (Gore only lost Tennessee by 3 percentage points)? Then work to either abolish the Electoral College system or change it so that it's more representative of the popular vote (for example, Gore would have gotten 5 of Tennessee's 11 EC votes if we divvied up EC votes by the percentage of the popular vote).