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What if only goats voted in the US election?

  • Published
    14 October 2016
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If only members of the resistance in Star Wars votedImage source, Edward Main
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What's popular and why

Eric Trump emailed his father's supporters on Tuesday urging them to keep faith with the Republican candidate's campaign for the US presidency.

"We're making huge gains against Crooked Hillary that you can see for yourself," Eric Trump wrote. Then he added the image, below where the states in red are meant to indicate support for Donald Trump.

If only men votedImage source, FiveThirtyEight
Image caption,

The news website FiveThirtyEight.com showed a landslide support for Donald Trump (in red) if only men were allowed to vote

However, there was a problem with this map. The map shared by Eric Trump was, in fact, from a feature from FiveThirtyEight.com, external, a statistics-driven news website, which calculated Trump who would win the US election if only men could vote. The editor Nate Silver also tweeted a similar map, external depicting what the state division would look like if only women voted. The website said that Hillary Clinton would win by an even larger margin.

The article concluded that if Donald Trump loses, it will be because women voted against him.

While some Trump supporters took to Twitter with the hashtag #RepealThe19th - in reference to the 19th amendment of the US constitution which gave women the right to vote - social media also forked off in another direction in response to Eric Trump's email.

Oh my god. Eric Trump used the "if only men voted for Trump" map from @538politics in the email. I want to both laugh & cry. @NateSilver538Image source, Twitter

People began imagining other "if only" scenarios. For examples, what if only goats were allowed to vote?

If only goats votedImage source, Twitter

Or how would things look if only dogs were allowed to vote?

What if only dogs votesImage source, Twitter

Or what if the election was decided by goths.

All black map showing if only goths votedImage source, Twitter/Chaosprime

And one for fans of the Simpsons, here is a look at the electoral landscape if only monorail enthusiasts were allowed to vote.

What is only Monorail enthusiasts were allowed to voteImage source, Twitter

Or remember those tortoise-like creatures from the Super Mario Bros video games? Well, imagine if only Koopa Troopas got to pick the next POTUS.

if only koopa troopas votedImage source, Twitter

Other maps depicted an even more highbrow demographic.

If only modernist period authors were allowed to voteImage source, Twitter/Jntod

You get the idea.

The issue of "gendered voting" has become an increasing hot topic with the US media.

The American news site MSNBC, external say that in recent decades women more likely to support Democrats and men more likely to support Republicans. In the 2012 election President Obama earned 55% support from women voters, while Mitt Romney received 52% of men voters.

In the last 25 years, men have only supported the Democratic candidate twice, while women haven't supported the Republican candidate at all, according to the report.

Blog by Megha Mohan, external

Next Story: 'Man Tax' - The shop where men pay 7% more

Pharmacy male taxImage source, Imgur

Outcry at New York pharmacy which says it will charge men 7% more than women. READ MORE

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, external, and find us on Facebook, external. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

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