I am writing in response to Edwin J. Hiebsch’s letter to the editor in the Gazette’s March 25 edition. He claims Trump won 3,084 counties out of 3,141 in the United States in the 2016 presidential election.
He cites no sources.
Snopes, a nonpartisan fact-checking website, states that Trump won 2,626 counties to Clinton’s 503.
The reality is that Clinton did win densely populated urban counties which are often geographically smaller.
According to the U.S. Electoral College, Clinton received 2.839 million more votes than Trump nationwide.
No doubt, there are issues with our present system of counting votes and gerrymandering. Both parties should find a way to make elections more fair and reflect more of the electorate’s will.
Personally, I would like to see every state give the electoral college units proportional to the vote for each party. As of today, only Nebraska and Maine do that.
It would reflect more fairly the voters’ will and, perhaps, equalize the weight of small, densely populated urban areas and larger, less-populated rural areas.
Claiming that New York affected the vote count arbitrarily gives New York more weight than California, where Clinton won overwhelmingly, or certain combinations of other states.
Sara Rosen
Lewes
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