My letter below was published today in The Boston Globe. Here is a source of the data about the election results: https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/president/ .
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The Boston Globe
LETTERS
Think we’re out of the woods regarding our democracy? Do the math
Joe Biden’s margin of victory of 7 million popular votes could cloud our awareness of the precariousness of our democracy.
Let’s do the math. Biden won Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin by a combined total of fewer than 43,000 votes. If half of that number had swung from Biden to Trump, Trump would have won the combined 37 electoral votes, creating a 269-vote tie in the Electoral College. The process of breaking that tie probably would have reelected Trump. An additional swing of one-half of fewer than 34,000 votes in Nevada would have added to the Trump column, giving him a majority of 275 electoral votes. Thus, a swing of fewer than 38,500 votes in total potentially could have made Trump the winner.
A different tally by this tiny number, representing only .025 percent of the total vote, could have elected Trump.
Renée Graham correctly calls Trump a “one-term president trying to crucify democracy” (“The last temptation of Mike Pence,” Ideas, Jan. 3). If we want to preserve democracy, we have a lot of work to do. Relatively few votes could give us another Trump-like president in 2024, if not Trump himself. Democracy itself is at stake.
John L. Hodge
Jamaica Plain
