Melvin Durai
The polls look good for Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president in America, putting him as many as 12 percentage points ahead of President Donald Trump nationally. But public surveys also looked good for Hillary Clinton in 2016; yet, Trump managed to eke out a victory.
Because America is a democratic country and believes strongly in democratic principles, the candidate who received the most votes was declared the loser.
After receiving almost three million fewer votes than Clinton, Trump got to celebrate at a huge victory party. At his inauguration, quite aptly, there were three million fewer supporters than he expected.
In the upcoming presidential election, Trump is almost guaranteed to receive fewer votes than Biden. But the big question on everyone’s mind is this: Will Trump celebrate victory again?
Nobody really knows for sure, except MK Damodaran, a 68-year-old Kerala numerologist. According to him, Trump supporters can begin planning their victory parties.
As Damodaran told a news agency, “November 3, 2020 is the day of the US presidential election, which is strongly lucky for incumbent President Trump. His date of birth is June 14, 1946. As such, his birth number is 5 (1 + 4). Besides, he was born in the Sun sign Gemini that is ruled by planet Mercury. Number 5 is represented by planet Mercury.”
What about Biden’s numbers? Domadaran has also analysed them, deeming the former vice-president’s chances of winning the top office as “very remote.”
Someone needs to inform Biden of this, because the poor man is spending millions of dollars on a presidential campaign that is doomed to fail. It would be wise for him to concede early and save everyone a lot of trouble.
Perhaps you’re skeptical about a numerologist’s ability to predict the outcome of an election. If so, I’d like to know whom we should rely upon instead. Achilles the Cat?
Achilles is a deaf Russian cat that correctly predicted the winner of several matches at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. All we have to do is put two bowls of food in front of the cat, one with a photo of Trump stuck to it and the other with Biden.
But Achilles, unfortunately, is not perfect. It incorrectly predicted that Nigeria would upset Argentina at the World Cup, causing premature dancing in the African country.
It would make more sense, perhaps, to rely on public polls —telephone surveys that ask a random sample of people about their election preferences. The problem with polls is that people don’t always do what they say they will. A voter named John Smith may tell the pollster that he likes Biden and strongly believes in exercising his right to vote. But on Election Day, Smith may decide that he strongly believes in exercising his right to watch football all day.
Another voter, Rohit Sharma, may tell a pollster that he’s unlikely to vote. But on Election Day, he may decide that voting is an important duty for every citizen, especially since his wife has put a sign on the couch: “Non-voters sleep here.”
Even if a pollster can predict which candidate will win more votes, predicting who will win the Electoral College is much harder. The Electoral College is the reason why Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election despite gaining more votes than Trump.
Here’s how it works: each state is given a certain number of electoral votes, depending on its population. Pennsylvania, for example, has 20 electoral votes and neighbouring Ohio has 18. The electoral votes are allocated to each candidate in a winner-takes-all system. So if Biden wins Ohio by three million votes, but loses Pennsylvania by just 3 votes, Trump will be ahead in the Electoral College by 20 to 18 — and true democracy will be a loser again.
Will America ever get rid of the Electoral College? I’m not sure, but I hope MK Damodaran will be able to tell me.