Gaming the Electoral College

A model uses game theory to predict how changes to the electoral system could shift campaign strategies and ad spending — and alter election results. This article originally appeared in our October 2010 issue and has been revised and updated for the 2012 presidential election. As Mitt Romney and President Obama crisscross the nation this campaign season, some voters are receiving VIP treatment. The country's electoral college system almost guarantees that voters in swing states, like Ohio and Florida, get more candidate attention, both on campaign stops and on the airwaves, than in states that lean decidedly Democratic or Republican. In fact, according to Professor Brett Gordon, just one third of the US population was exposed to more than 90 percent of campaign advertising in the 2000 and 2004 elections. The role of the Electoral college in shaping national elections has been under particular scrutiny since 2000. Only three times in US history has the electoral vote trumped the popular vote in a presidential election, but the uniquely contentious results in 2000 rekindled the debate about whether to abolish the winner-take-all electoral college in favor of a direct national vote.