Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for November 30, 2012

If you can do it while drinking beer and smoking it isn’t really a sport.

I’m impressed by all three, but really impressed by the election one.

I live close to Mac Isle so I remember this story on Ripleys. It’s about the 4 time in 6 years they have repeated it. They just keep recycling the same trivia. Why I keep reading it is beyond me. Same with the This day in history sites. They just keep rehashing the same info.

With the electoral college it’s possible for a candidate to receive just 25% of the popular vote and win the presidency. He just needs 50% of the vote in the 10 biggest states and he can lose every vote in the other states.

About the croquet piece, I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that the 1900 Summer Olympics were held in Paris, France. Actually, there was only one entrant from outside of France (Marcel Haentjens of Belgium) so the odds were kind of stacked for someone from France winning every medal. Some more trivia: there was only ONE paying spectator (NOT one of the most popular Olympic sports)!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Summer_Olympics

Not really. Population density varies from state to state. If you won in the highest population density areas, then it would be possible to win with fewer states.I would like to see the electoral college change from “winner take all” to electoral votes awarded based on the percentage of the popular vote.If you color the US map according to the popular vote, the map of the US is many more shades of purple than red or blue and is not at all as deeply divided as the red and blue electoral college map makes it look.

The Electors are largely based on how the state is Gerrymandered.

Should we phase out the Electoral College by degrees?

Four presidents have lost the popular vote but won via electoral vote. John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harris, Grover Cleveland, and George W Bush

lets look at this from another point. Even if your man did not win the presidency.every state has 2 senators. this means that the lower populated states control the senate. Not California or Texas.

electoral college is a legal way to rig an election. That is all it has ever been.

3 million votes is not that much when you consider the total number of votes cast. Romney got 49% to Obama’s 51%. A much closer election than the electoral college indicates. Control CA, NY, FL & TX and the presidency is basically yours (Note 2 of those are solid blue, 1 solid red, and 1 kinda purple.)

And deserveedly so if the other guy could win the “bis three”.

Another interesting thing about the electorial college: its possible but unlikely to win 99.9999% of the vote and still lose the election. (If only 1 person votes in each of the 11 most populous states)