Hey, remember our contest to predict how many electoral votes Hillary Clinton would receive? Seems a little pointless now, I know, but I think we can wrap this up even though the count isn't final.
Three states — Arizona, Minnesota and New Hampshire — remain uncalled so we don't know her precise final total but it will be one of these numbers: 228, 232, 239, 243, 244, 248, 255 or 259. As it happens, one person guessed 268 and that'll be the closest guess. Everyone else who had her losing (i.e., below 270) had her in the hundreds — wishful thinking, no doubt.
About 1100 of you entered. About 1050 of you understood the instruction to put your guess in the subject line of the message. I was going to disqualify all of you who didn't but as it happened, it wouldn't have made a difference.
One person wrote me a very long, detailed explanation of why he was certain she would lose California. It had something to do with an imagined rebound from liberalism that I have yet to notice in my state. It sure wasn't visible in the way we voted on most of our propositions.
The lowest guess I received was 112. The highest was 475. I want to thank those of you who guessed in the 400s not just for your optimism but for making my guess of 350 seem not quite as bad as it was.
Over a hundred of you guessed 323, which I think is what one pollster projected. There were a lot of votes for 317, 340 and 358. When you come right down to it, most of us didn't do any worse than experienced poll analysts and statisticians who did actual math and ran thousands of simulated match-ups on their computers.
Our winner is Jeff Ziegler who wrote that he was hoping he was wrong and that she'd get at least two more to win. For his fantastic forecasting, Jeff will receive…absolutely nothing, otherwise known as the same amount that rich people will be paying in taxes eventually if Paul Ryan has his way. Thanks for playing, all ~1100 of you!