// "I guess it was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan"
// - Donald Trump 2017-02-16
// on the subject of his 2016 election victory.
// Let's look at the facts:
var elections = {
"2016 Trump": {
college: [304, 227, 7],
popularvote: 46.0
},
"2012 Obama": {
college: [332, 206, 0],
popularvote: 51.1,
},
"2008 Obama": {
college: [365, 173, 0],
popularvote: 52.9,
},
"2004 Bush": {
college: [286, 252, 0],
popularvote: 50.7
},
"2000 Bush": {
college: [271, 266, 0],
popularvote: 47.9
},
"1996 Clinton": {
college: [379, 159, 0],
popularvote: 49.2
},
"1992 Clinton": {
college: [370, 168, 0],
popularvote: 43.0
},
"1988 Bush": {
college: [468,111,1],
popularvote: 53.4
},
"1984 Reagan": {
college: [525,13,0],
popularvote: 58.8
}
};
// calculate margin of victory by election
var margins = [];
for(var i in elections) {
var margin = elections[i].college[0] - (elections[i].college[1] + elections[i].college[2]);
var obj = {
election: i,
margin: margin
};
margins.push(obj);
}
// margins by election
margins.map(function(m) { return m.election + ' - ' + m.margin});
// so it wasn't the biggest. Where does it rank?
// sort into "biggest margin first" order
function compare(a, b) {
if (a.margin > b.margin) {
return -1;
}
if (a .margin < b.margin) {
return 1;
}
// a must be equal to b
return 0;
}
margins.sort(compare);
margins.map(function(m) { return m.election + ' - ' + m.margin});
// so Trump's victory margin is the third smallest since Reagan. Five other elections were won by a larger margin
// what about the popular vote then?
var popularvotes = {};
var j = 0;
for(var i in elections) {
popularvotes[i] = elections[i].popularvote;
}
popularvotes
// only one President since Reagan had a smaller proportion of the popular vote, which was Bill Clinton in 1992 when Ross Perot, a third-party candidate, took 18.9% of the vote.
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