Can Game Theory Save Voters from Ourselves (and Donald Trump)?

Linch Zhang speaks to Scott Aaronson in the Huffington Post:

Linch: Sixteen years ago you tried to get Nader and Gore voters to team up with NaderTrading. Sixteen years later, you’re bringing the idea back – why now?”

ScreenHunter_2270 Oct. 06 19.36Scott: Naturally, because of the urgent need to stop Trump from taking over the US.

I should add that NaderTrading wasn’t my idea—in 2000, I simply created a website to defend the practice, after others had already written about it and were engaging in it. In any case, we NaderTrading defenders were able to reach thousands of people, including in swing states like Florida, but it wasn’t quite enough. That, of course, is one of the reasons why we got eight years of George W. Bush.

Linch: What, in your own words, is “votetrading” and how could I use votetrading right now?

Scott: The idea is very simple. Supporters of a third-party candidate, like Gary Johnson, who live in a swing state like Ohio, should vote for Hillary Clinton (assuming they prefer her over Trump), but should also arrange for a Hillary supporter in a safe state like Texas or California to vote for Johnson on their behalf.

This helps to compensate for the insanity of the Electoral College—which, the way we use it today, neither makes sense nor bears any real relation to what the founding fathers intended. Because of the Electoral College, only a few states matter for presidential general elections, and the residents of other states are basically voiceless.

More here.