As of now, counting the leader in each undecided race, the new House will be 235 R, 200 D, a gain of only 7 seats. ThinkProgress reports a popular-vote tally of 50.3% D to 49.7%, a margin of D+0.6%. Both results are within range of my prediction.
However, this is quite notable. The popular vote was a swing of more than 6% from the 2010 election, which was 53.5% R, 46.5% D. Yet the composition of the House hardly changed – and the party that got more votes is not in control. This discrepancy between popular votes and seat counts is the largest since 1950.
The districts were brutally gerrymandered after 2010, giving Republicans the ability to flummox the system and thus preserving their House majority even though they lost the popular vote. Perhaps we need a nonpartisan way of drawing the district boundaries -- maybe couple it with filibuster reform.
Sam Wang had another great point about the notion of apportioning electoral votes based on (gerrymandered) congressional districts:
Incidentally, some readers have suggested to me a reform in the Electoral College so that each Congressional district votes for its elector directly. As you can see, such a rule change would allow redistricting to influence the fairness of the Electoral College. Winner-take-all state races occasionally cause a problem, but which party gains is somewhat variable. It seems that there are worse things than the status quo.
Exactly right.