Alternate history scenarios: A Weimar Republic Electoral College

One of the interesting contentions about the Electoral College system is the idea that the Electoral College prevents the United States from electing someone like Hitler.

This contention is plainly false. In the scenarios where Hitler loses an Electoral College election, he also would have lost a popular vote. In the scenarios where the Electoral College would have gone to a contingency election, the Weimar Republic’s actual historical election system would have required that Hitler survive a second round election.

One realistic scenario for a Weimar Republic Electoral College system. Details are provided later in the article.

There are realistic scenarios where, in a hypothetical American-style presidential election held in 1932, Hitler wins a majority in the Electoral College with a minority of the vote. Thus, in some cases where the Weimar Republic’s direct election system would have subjected Hitler to a second round, the Electoral College system might have simply elected Hitler without further scrutiny.

What were the electoral characteristics of Hitler?

In 1932, Hitler and his NSDAP party participated in two parliamentary elections and a two-round presidential election in 1932. Hitler earned 30% of the vote in the preliminary round of the presidential election and 37% in a subsequent runoff round; Nazis had similar performance in…