dazzleman
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« on: November 16, 2003, 11:58:48 AM » |
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The definition of a landslide is pretty subjective, and there are several measures.
In a presidential election, I think that more than about 400 electoral votes constitutes a landslide, provided that it is accompanied by at least 55% of the popular vote.
If a candidate wins most states by a very narrow margin, that would be a broad geographical victory but not a landslide. George Bush in 1988 won 40 states with 426 electoral votes, but got only 54% of the popular vote. I would consider that a near-landslide, but not an actual landslide, because his share of the popular vote indicates a wide but relatively shallow victory, rather than a wide and deep victory, which is the definition of a landslide.
Bill Clinton received 370 and 379 electoral votes, respectively, in the 1992 and 1996 elections, but I don't consider his wins to be near-landslides because he never won a majority of the popular vote. He won 43% and 49% of the popular vote in 1992 and 1996, respectively, and a minority winner cannot be considered a landslide or near-landslide winner in my opinion.
In a regular election, I would consider 60% of the vote as a landslide, since the winner would have received 150% of the votes that the loser received.
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