Apportionment the 2016 Election

Abstract

The 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was one of five cases where the winner of the popular vote was not the winner of the election. In this project, we examine the 2016 election to determine the reasoning behind the popular vote vs. electoral vote discrepancy. First, we observe the effects of four different apportionment methods. Then, taking inspiration from Neubauer and Zeitlin’s study on the 2000 election, we change the size of the House of Representatives to numbers ranging from 400 to 1008, and model the election [1]. We also observe the effects of using a proportional voting method within the states instead of the traditional winner-take- all method. Ultimately, using various approaches, we attempt to determine if there is a way to model the election that changes the outcome so the popular vote and electoral vote produce the same winner.