Electoral College

Post Reply New Topic

iam from utah which is atleast 80% republican. i dont believe any other party has won the state. As you can see, my vote for president does not count.
A

Since the President is elected by the States, rather than the individuals, it sounds like it is working properly. I don't support either the Republicans or the Democrats, so my candidate is likely doing worse than yours. It doesn't mean I am out looking for the Constitution to be amended just so my preferred candidate might do better.

This statement is nonsense: A State has no opinion apart from the individuals within that state.

So it's still individuals that determine who the President is. The only difference is that some have vastly more influence than others because of where they live.

Incorrect. The U.S. Constitution says that the States elect the President. The people in each state vote to determine which slate of Electors are sent from their state. You don't actually vote for the President. A reading of the Constitution would reveal this much.

An individual in a less populous state has more say than one in a less populous state, in that their vote is a larger percentage of the total vote in their state. The election of the U.S. President is basically determined on a state-by-state basis, rather than the nation as a whole. This, again, is quite obvious.

Do you really think I don't know that?

You're missing the whole damn point of my post, which it that a "state's opinion" does not exist independently of that state's voters.



Votes per capita mean nothing in a block voting system. As a simple example, consider this hypothetical example of a 16-state Electoral College:

• California: 55 EVs, population 33,871,648 (1.64 EV per million)
• Wyoming: 3 EVs, population 493,782 (6.08 EV per million)
• D.C.: 3 EVs, population 572,059 (5.24 EV per million)
• Vermont: 3 EVs, population 608,827 (4.93 EV per million)
• Alaska: 3 EVs, population 626,932 (4.79 EV per million)
• North Dakota: 3 EVs, population 642,200 (4.67 EV per million)
• South Dakota: 3 EVs, population 754,844 (3.97 EV per million)
• Delaware: 3 EVs, population 783,600 (3.83 EV per million)
• Montana: 3 EVs, population 902,195 (3.33 EV per million)
• Rhode Island: 4 EVs, population 1,048,319 (3.82 EV per million)
• Hawaii: 4 EVs, population 1,211,537 (3.30 EV per million)
• New Hampshire: 4 EVs, population 1,235,786 (3.24 EV per million)
• Maine: 4 EVs, population 1,274,923 (3.14 EV per million)
• Idaho: 4 EVs, population 1,293,953 (3.09 EV per million)
• Nebraska: 5 EVs, population 1,711,263 (2.92 EV per million)
• West Virginia: 5 EVs, population 1,808,344 (2.76 EV per million)

By your logic, California voters are underrepresented. And yet the election is entirely determined by California!

A more reasonable way to compare voter influence between states is to use the Banzhaf power index, which says that

• The most overrepresented states are: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania
• The most underrepresented states are: Montana, Utah, Delaware, South Dakota, Idaho
• Spearman's correlation coefficient between state population and voter power is +0.8595, a significant positive correlation.

The bigger your state, the more say you have.

Unless of course, you live in a "safe state" like I do, in which case you're more likely to win the lottery every week of your life than to cast a deciding vote in a presidential election.

Every state would be "safe" then, as far as my vote would be concerned. I haven't voted Republican or Democrat since 1992. My presidential vote has not been a 'deciding vote', but I'm not trying to change the system just to give my preferred candidate a better standing. I happen to think the system is sound, even if I don't like the choices the masses make.

I say that there should be no leaders, just an elected council of elders with a speaker. No political parties to divide the country, just the elders. But as that will not happen, get rid of any form of indirect democracy as it denies the human rights of the people to choose the leader as in 2000 the popular vote went to Al Gore and he only lost due to not having the votes in the right places.