
Conservative pundit Charlie Kirk began trending on Twitter this morning after it was discovered that math poses special challenges for the young Mr. Kirk.
Kirk, who runs the far-right student group Turning Point USA (which attracts a lot of support from white nationalists), apparently thought he could prove that Donald Trump’s baseless voter fraud allegations are true.
Kirk tweeted the vote totals and number of counties won by Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and most recently, President-elect Joe Biden.
Barack Obama: – 69,000,000 votes, 873 counties
Donald Trump: 75,000,000, 2,497 counties
Joe Biden: 81,000,000 votes, 477 counties
He followed those stats with the statement “And we’re not allowed to question his ‘victory.'”
As most people know, conservative/Republican presidential candidates tend to do well in rural areas (i.e. counties with not a lot of people) and Democratic candidates see much of their support in urban areas (big cities where there are a LOT of people in a relatively small area).
I’m guessing Kirk was stumped by the fact that Donald Trump might have won many more counties than Joe Biden but didn’t win the election.
For instance, here in my state of Nevada, Trump handily won Esmeralda county with a vote total of 400 votes to Biden’s 74. Yep, those were the total votes cast for those candidates.
Meanwhile, Biden won Clark country with 521,852 votes over Trump’s 430,930 votes – a difference of over 90,000 votes. See how that works, Charlie? At the end of the race, if you get the most votes in a state, you win that state’s electoral college votes. County lines don’t factor in how votes are counted.
Twitter had a field day about population density and the fact that land can’t vote.
The most populous county in Texas (Harris, which Biden won) has *27,495 times* the population of the least populous county in Texas (Loving, which Trump won).
That’s not a typo; it’s 4.65 million people versus … 169.
This is such a dumb meme — and not how we vote. https://t.co/JplYntqbVu
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) December 21, 2020
Counties are an arbitrary and meaningless unit. California, with a population of 40 million, has 58 counties…while Montana, with only one million residents, has 56 counties.
And we're not allowed to question your "logic"?
— Eric Williams (@Eric_Williams_1) December 21, 2020
Population of Los Angeles County, CA: 10M
Population of Idaho, Kansas, and Kentucky COMBINED: 9.5M
One Biden county: 10M
259 Trump counties: 9.5MBiden took 10 counties in those 3 Trump states but I still counted their pop for Trump.
Hope that clears the math up for you. https://t.co/eZvYJotDxd
— Dr. Melissa Hillman (@bittergertrude) December 21, 2020
Loving County, Texas – 90.9% trump, 4% Biden (60 to 4 in actual votes)
Los Angeles County, California – 71% Biden, 26.9% trump (3,028,885 to 1,145,530 actual votes)Basically identical, right?
— Frederick Douglass (@Abolition_Fred) December 21, 2020
Eric Trump and Charlie Kirk are tweeting about how Donald Trump won more counties.
Who is going to explain to them that there are 10 million people in LA County, and just 169 in Loving County, TX?
And then who will explain that 10 million is more than 169?
— Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) December 21, 2020
Trump supporters get upset when you point out that 81 million is bigger than 74 million and 306 electoral votes is +36 more than you need to be declared the winner.
— Mark Abbott (@MarkAbbott16) December 21, 2020
Heres what the counties look like by population pic.twitter.com/Yqx5bY0Yro
— josh valentine (@jjv124) December 21, 2020
I love when they use that map. Pairs nicely with the “land doesn’t vote” gif pic.twitter.com/3OlUdW9eMk
— WonderWitch (@LynnMcKenna17) December 21, 2020
States with a lower population than Los Angeles County: pic.twitter.com/xcER9hsm3X
— Fey (@greywan) December 21, 2020
"my team hit 10 2-point shots and they only hit 7 3-point shots HOW THE FUCK DO THEY WIN??????" – Charlie Kirk https://t.co/acFllXFLLq
— Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) December 21, 2020