Quote:
Originally Posted by SummerChild
But IASK,
My point exactly, is that the number of votes is not proportional to the population relative to the population in other states.
Here's what I mean - take South Dakota, which had 781,000 people on the 2006 census, and take NY, which had 19,306,000.
Ok, 781,000/19,306,000 = 0.4
HOWEVER, South Dakota gets 3 electoral college votes to New York's 31 --> 3/31 = 0.9.
Get what I mean?
Down with the electoral college. Those folk in South Dakota and North Dakota burn me up every election with their disproportionate say in who gets to be President.
If my memory serves me correctly, the move toward the electoral college was actually an attempt to protect the voice of the small states. I don't know if I remember correctly, but I think they are getting way more say than they deserve.
SC
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I think I get what you mean. The EC favors large states not small states though.
Each state automatically gets 2 electoral votes (for their senators).
Then the number of electoral votes is 1 to 693,000 popular votes.
Each person's vote no matter where they live is worth .000001 electoral votes. (1/693,000=.000001)
The number of electoral votes after the first two is equal to the number of Reps in the house. So S.Dakota's people really only get 1 electoral vote where the people of N.Y. get 29. The EC was designed to mirror the house and senate votes. So a state has the same amount of reps in congress as it has votes in the EC.
The EC's purpose was to keep the undereducated people of America from electing an idiot or someone otherwise unfit. The idea was that the average voter really is not educated enough to cast a ballot wisely. Since America is a democracy and the people have to be included in the process the EC was put in place just in case the people were too stupid to do the right thing.
If the proportion was counted your way it would be:
# of electoral votes/# of people in state= Value of each person's vote.
S.D.= 1/781,000=.000001
N.Y.= 29/19,306,000=.000001
So the people of S.Dakota and the people of New York have exactly equal say in who becomes president.