Skip to main content

"The Electoral College is more fair!" No, it's actually not...

There's been a great deal of debate about the Electoral College since Donald Trump's victory last Tuesday night, for while he exceeded the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, he currently trails Hillary Clinton in the popular vote by over 1.3 million. Electoral College defenders continually say that the current system makes things more fair for the smaller, less populated states, as it prevents the larger states from having too great an influence on the results. Going through the math, I can say, without any hesitation, that's complete hogwash. Let's first take a look at the population and electoral vote count of all 50 states (as well as D.C.), and then showcase how many people one electoral vote represents.

1) California: 38,332,521, 55 EVs, 1 EV per 696,955 people
2) Texas: 26,448,193, 38 EVs, 1 EV per 696,005
3) New York: 19,651,127, 29 EVs, 1 EV per 677,625
4) Florida: 19,552,860, 29 EVs, 1 EV per 674,237
5) Illinois: 12,882,135, 20 EVs, 1 EV per 644,107
6) Pennsylvania: 12,773,801, 20 EVs, 1 EV per 638,690
7) Ohio: 11,570,808, 18 EVs, 1 EV per 642,823
8) Georgia: 9,992,167, 16 EVs, 1 EV per 624,510
9) Michigan: 9,895,622, 16 EVs, 1 EV per 618,476
10) North Carolina: 9,848,060, 15 EVs, 1 EV per 656,537
11) New Jersey: 8,899,339, 14 EVs, 1 EV per 635,667
12) Virginia: 8,260,405, 13 EVs, 1 EV per 635,416
13) Washington: 6,971,406, 12 EVs, 1 EV per 580,951
14) Massachusetts: 6,692,824, 11 EVs, 1 EV per 608,439
15) Arizona: 6,626,824, 11 EVs, 1 EV per 602,439
16) Indiana: 6,570,902, 11 EVs, 1 EV per 597,355
17) Tennessee: 6,495,978, 11 EVs, 1 EV per 590,543
18) Missouri: 6,044,171, 10 EVs, 1 EV per 604,417
19) Maryland: 5,928,814, 10 EVs, 1 EV per 592,881
20) Wisconsin: 5,742,713, 10 EVs, 1 EV per 574,271
21) Minnesota: 5,420,380, 10 EVs, 1 EV per 542,038
22) Colorado: 5,268,367, 9 EVs, 1 EV per 585,374
23) Alabama: 4,833,722, 9 EVs, 1 EV per 537,080
24) South Carolina: 4,774,839, 9 EVs, 1 EV per 530,538
25) Louisiana: 4,625,470, 8 EVs, 1 EV per 578,184
26) Kentucky: 4,395,295, 8 EVs, 1 EV per 549,412
27) Oregon: 3,930,065, 7 EVs, 1 EV per 561,438
28) Oklahoma: 3,850,568, 7 EVs, 1 EV per 550,081
29) Connecticut: 3,596,080, 7 EVs, 1 EV per 513,726
30) Iowa: 3,090,416, 6 EVs, 1 EV per 515,069
31) Mississippi: 2,991,207, 6 EVs, 1 EV per 498,535
32) Arkansas: 2,959,373, 6 EVs, 1 EV per 493,229
33) Utah: 2,900,872, 6 EVs, 1 EV per 483,479
34) Kansas: 2,893,957, 6 EVs, 1 EV per 482,326
35) Nevada: 2,790,136, 6 EVs, 1 EV per 465,023
36) New Mexico: 2,085,287, 5 EVs, 1 EV per 417,057
37) Nebraska: 1,868,516, 5 EVs, 1 EV per 373,703
38) West Virginia: 1,854,304, 5 EVs, 1 EV per 370,861
39) Idaho: 1,612,136, 4 EVs, 1 EV per 403,034
40) Hawaii: 1,404,054, 4 EVs, 1 EV per 351,014
41) Maine: 1,328,302, 4 EVs, 1 EV per 332,076
42) New Hampshire: 1,323,459, 4 EVs,  1 EV per 330,865
43) Rhode Island: 1,051,511, 4 EVs, 1 EV per 262,878
44) Montana: 1,015,165, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 338,388
45) Delaware: 925,749, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 308,583
46) South Dakota: 844,877, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 281,626
47: Alaska: 735,132, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 245,044
48) North Dakota: 723,132, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 244,044
49) District of Columbia: 646,449, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 215,483
50) Vermont: 626,630, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 208,877 
51) Wyoming: 582,658, 3 EVs, 1 EV per 194,219

If we were then to apply Wyoming's math (1 EV per 194,219), here's how many electoral votes each state would be worth on election day: 

California: 197 EVs
Texas: 136 EVs
New York: 101 EVs
Florida: 101 EVs
Illinois: 66 EVs
Pennsylvania: 66 EVs
Ohio: 60 EVs
Georgia: 51 EVs
Michigan: 51 EVs
North Carolina: 51 EVs
New Jersey: 46 EVs
Virginia: 43 EVs
Washington: 36 EVs
Massachusetts: 34 EVs
Arizona: 34 EVs
Indiana: 34 EVs
Tennessee: 33 EVs
Missouri: 31 EVs
Maryland: 31 EVs
Wisconsin: 30 EVs
Minnesota: 28 EVs
Colorado: 27 EVs
Alabama: 25 EVs
South Carolina: 25 EVs
Louisiana: 24 EVs
Kentucky: 23 EVs
Oregon: 20 EVs
Oklahoma: 20 EVs
Connecticut: 19 EVs
Iowa: 16 EVs
Mississippi: 15 EVs
Arkansas: 15 EVs
Utah: 15 EVs
Kansas: 15 EVs
Nevada: 14 EVs
New Mexico: 11 EVs
Nebraska: 10 EVs
West Virginia: 10 EVs
Idaho: 8 EVs
Hawaii: 7 EVs
Maine: 7 EVs
New Hampshire: 7 EVs
Rhode Island: 5 EVs
Montana: 5 EVs
Delaware: 5 EVs
South Dakota: 4 EVs
Alaska: 4 EVs
North Dakota: 4 EVs
District of Columbia: 3 EVs
Vermont: 3 EVs
Wyoming: 3 EVs

There you have it. If the Electoral College is unfair to anyone, it's the more populated states. California, worth 55 electoral votes as far as the current system goes, would be worth 197 if we applied the same Wyoming math across all 50 states (and D.C.). There's approximately one electoral vote in California per 696,955 people, while there's approximately one electoral vote in Wyoming per 194,219 people. This means every vote in Wyoming is worth 359% more than every vote in California. No matter which way an Electoral College defender wants to look at the current system's math, it doesn't work. My vote shouldn't be worth any more or less than anybody else's. It should be one person, one vote, and every vote counts. Period.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...
2 comments
Read more

Trump's Lie Tally at the CNN Debate

1) "We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We had never done so well. Every – everybody was amazed by it. Other countries were copying us." 2) "But the thing we never got the credit for, and we should have, is getting us out of that COVID mess." 3) "The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants and bounceback jobs; they’re bounced back from the COVID." 4) "Not going to drive them higher. It’s just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China and many others, in all fairness to China – it’s going to just force them to pay us a lot of money, reduce our deficit tremendously, and give us a lot of power for other things." (tariffs) 5) "He also said he inherited 9 percent inflation." 6) "No, he inherited almost no inflation and it stayed that way for 14 months. And then it blew up under his leadership, because they spent money like a bunch of people that didn’t know what t...
Post a Comment
Read more