You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
7
Rest in peace, Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The phones were shipped to much acclaim. Then they started exploding. This was considered a flaw — I mean, not on par with the lack of a headphone jack, but a flaw nonetheless — and so the phones were recalled. The replacement phones also exploded. So now, having learned the lesson of Swamp Castle, Samsung is just discontinuing the line. [The Telegraph]
+15 points
Based on an average of recent polls, Hillary Clinton is up 15 points among women and Donald Trump is up 5 points among men. Based on this data and the FiveThirtyEight model, if only women voted in the election, Hillary Clinton would win with 458 of 538 electoral votes. If only men voted — this used to be a thing in American history, you may recall — Trump would win with 350 electoral votes. [FiveThirtyEight]
17 propositions
California is a nightmare. The state’s ruthless devotion to the plebiscite means it’s throwing a fistful of policy questions at the electorate every cycle rather than, you know, exploiting the representative democracy feature of our republic. The best-case scenario is “maybe you pass some taxes that otherwise you couldn’t have,” and the worst case is — if you ask me — an international disgrace. Anyway, Californians get to deal with 17 ballot propositions this November, asking your everyday random person whether cigarettes get more expensive, the death penalty gets repealed, and — of assuredly worldwide interest — whether pornography performers will be forced to wear rubbers. Democracy! [The Los Angeles Times]
42 percent
Percentage of Republican women serving in Congress or as governors who don’t support Donald Trump, compared with 17 percent of GOP men in those offices. Golly, I wonder what happened here. [FiveThirtyEight]
52 percent
Percentage of millennials who said that the “pro-life” label describes them, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey. The movement against abortion rights is adapting to changing norms and a younger, politically involved group of believers. [Slate]
$120 million
The United Nations humanitarian aid agency has asked for $120 million in aid for Haiti, which was hit by Hurricane Matthew. [The Guardian]
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