Don't trust presidential polls that show huge leads for Joe Biden. The race isn't over.

Authored by eu.azcentral.com and submitted by SenorBurns
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Don't trust presidential polls that show huge leads for Joe Biden. The race isn't over. Opinion: The presidential election is much, much closer than national polling data indicate. Blame the outdated and patently racist Electoral College system.

They say men lie, women lie and numbers don’t; but that urban aphorism doesn’t apply to presidential politics.

Those numbers lie all the time.

Blame the nation’s nonsensical reliance on an outdated and patently racist Electoral College system that needs to be overhauled regardless of who wins the White House in 2020.

The latest polling data show Joe Biden up big, nationally. A new CNN survey has “Amtrak Joe” leading by a whopping 16 points. The Economist/YouGov has Biden up by 9 points among likely voters. And Reuters/Ipsos has the former vice president up 12.

But none of those analytics are worth the spreadsheets they’re printed on; the last two Republican presidents would have lost a national election.

Donald Trump had almost 3 million fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016. And George W. Bush had about 500,000 fewer than Al Gore in 2000.

If democracy is supposed to reflect the will of the majority, then the Electoral College needs to lose its accreditation. The principles of “one voter, one vote” and “representational equality” should apply nationally, not just within the borders of a given state.

Why Trump still has a puncher's chance

One fighter can knock his opponent down four or five times without hitting the canvas himself even once. He can open bloody cuts around both of his opponent’s eyes without suffering a scratch himself. But if all that action came in just a round or two of a 12-round fight, the bruiser could still lose.

The winner is the pugilist who takes most of the rounds, not the one who does the most damage in the rounds he wins.

Now, apply this ridiculousness to presidential politics.

California has 55 electoral votes spread among 40 million people.

Meanwhile, Alabama (9), Idaho (4), Kansas (6), Missouri (10), North Dakota (3), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Utah (6) and Wyoming (3) have 55 electoral votes spread among 28 million people.

In what world is 40 equivalent to 28?

It shouldn’t be overlooked that the minority populations in the small states are miniscule compared to California.

Alabama has a Black population of about 26%, but most of the other states are hovering around or below 10%.

California, meanwhile, is 40% Latino, 16% Asian and 7% Black.

That means the votes of white people in small, rural states count more than the votes of minorities in California.

Electoral College is unequal by design

This is a feature — not a flaw — of the current system.

It was designed this way by the nation’s Founding Fathers who realized that the North would have an outsized influence in federal policy unless the enslaved people in the South were counted as population and not property for the sake of political representation.

Black people counted, but only three-fifths as much as their white counterparts, and they couldn’t vote themselves.

In effect, this three-fifths compromise lives on today, disenfranchising minority voters in California, Florida, New York, Texas and elsewhere.

Why we still use this system is a better question than “why hasn’t Donald Trump been charged with reckless endangerment or outright assault for promiscuously breathing all over people when he was infected with COVID-19?”

Rid the system but until then, vote

But since we cannot change the rules in the middle of the game, here’s what we should make of the landslide national advantages in favor of Biden.

The only poll numbers that matter for predicting how the election will turn out are in the Big Six swing states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

And those numbers are a lot closer than the national numbers.

Biden doesn’t have this thing wrapped up.

And there’s still plenty of time to register to vote following a court order extending the deadline. The deadline is Oct. 23.

The moment a winner is declared, we should turn our attention to fixing an outdated and racist Electoral College system that suppresses the will of the people.

Reach Moore at [email protected] or 602-444-2236. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @WritingMoore.

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MrMongoose on October 10th, 2020 at 14:04 UTC »

It doesn't even matter if the race were 'over' - the Senate is at least as important and is a much tougher battle.

Dems are only slightly favored to take the Senate at all - and only have about a 1 in 3 chance of getting the landslide they really need to secure more than a bare majority - which will be vital in accomplishing more aggressive political maneuvers (like statehood for DC/PR, court expansion, etc).

Biden may be doing well - but Dems are still the underdog in many ways. Not by too much to be an impossible goal - but definitely a struggle.

Don't stop. Keep pushing. Just a few more weeks - and THEN we can rest. If you've got anything left to give or anything more you can do then now is the time!

RSSforTulsi on October 10th, 2020 at 13:16 UTC »

Can't it be true that Biden currently holds a significant lead among likely voters and the race is not yet over.

uping1965 on October 10th, 2020 at 13:11 UTC »

Just Vote. That is what matters.