How many people voted for Trump, never believing he'd be elected?

[Ligyron]

My guess is that some significant proportion of the people who voted for Trump just did it to stick their thumb in the eye of government and the media, never imagining for more than an instant that he'd actually become President.

Many of them must be going, "ho lee crap, what now?". Many will never admit this to their friends and family but they may be the first ones to support his elimination when they personally start to suffer from his inept rule.

My point is: considering the disenfranchising of legitimate voters, possible hacking, election rigging we know has to have happened, there may not be as many real Trump supporters or enthusiasts as we imagine.

[onecaliberal]

1. No chance in hell I would vote for that maggot.

[LisaL]

2. About as many as voted for Bugs Bunny.

[cilla4progress]

3. I think this is a

very good question.

Maybe same for Jill Stein voters.

[LisaL]

4. Jill Stein voters knew there was snowball's chance in hell of Jill being elected.

People voting for Trump presumably had to realize that he can be elected.
So I really don't see why people voting for him would vote for him thinking he can't be elected.

[cilla4progress]

5. Ok, um...

people voting for Stein never thought Trump could be elected ...

[LisaL]

6. Why would they think that? Delusions?

Overconfidence by the democrats? Most polls in swing states were very close and within margin of error. 1 in 3 chance isn't 0 chance.

[cilla4progress]

8. Cf: 2000

Nader

[oberliner]

7. Zero?

I think the people who voted for him believed he would be elected.

[Ligyron]

10. I only know two who did and they never expected him to actually get into office.

Anecdotal I know but then my dad and others voted Perot for the same reason.

Of course, Perot had much less chance of being elected and people knew this going in. With Trump it was closer but most media had HRC winning bigly in the EC.

What a bad joke that turned out to be.

[oberliner]

11. Interesting

It seems that the Trump voters I encountered were all true believers.

[LisaL]

13. The joke is on them, I guess.

I think vast majority of Trump voters voted for him because they expected/wanted him to win.

[Ligyron]

14. Oh, I do too.

A great proportion of them really voted for white culture ascendancy too, I believe.

But the results were close and I wonder if the number of people who did it as a protest vote would come close to equaling the number of votes Hills lost by. That's if she actually did lose too and I have my doubts.

But whatever, I hope they choke on it and told them so too.

[jalan48]

9. Probably some who wanted to tweak Clinton and make it a close race.

A bigger question to me is the number of "under votes" cast in the election. Individuals who voted in the election but chose not to vote for President-they left it blank.

[jmg257]

12. Let's you know how much they didn't want Hillary in there. Sad, really. nt

[Gothmog]

15. The same thing happened in the UK with respect to Brexit

Many people evidently voted for brexit never believing that it could pass

[Ligyron]

16. and here's my point exactly.

Too bad we will never find out how many or if it would have been enough to make the difference but considering how close it was - if it occurred in MI or MN or even Penn that may have been the ballgame for us.

[LeftInTX]

17. I know someone who did

Unfortunately, I'm married to him.

[BlueProgressive]

18. I've wondered about that, myself.

Even most right-wing media was assuring everyone that Hillary was going to win, possibly in a landslide--- so what was the harm in casting a Trump-protest vote, even though he was a complete asshole, there was "NO WAY he was going to win"....

I'll bet there were more than a few of those. Enough to make the difference? Who knows...