The problem with the Electoral College is not partisanship or urban-rural polarization

At least, not directly. The system itself creates many different opportunities for mismatches between the will of the people and the will of electors

This paper — which builds a series of mathematical models to analyze the probability of mismatches between the popular vote and Electoral College since the 1820s — recently showed up on the front page of Reddit. That is interesting because I wrote about it years ago! More important is that it’s a really interesting paper, too, with lots of lessons for p…