Electoral College

[eppie]

Generally, we don't have a direct democracy.  We have a republic, which uses representative democracy.  When we elect a president, it also needs to account for the positions of all the states, not just the interests of the most populated state.  If you look at electoral representation;
California(55),
New York(31),
Texas(34),
Florida(27) = 147 electoral votes out of 538 (27%)

Compared to population(in millions) representation;
California(35),
New York(19),
Texas(22),
Florida(17) = 93 out of 291 (32%)

You can see that things are slightly skewed in favor of smaller states.  For instance North Dakota has 3 electoral votes for a population of 633837 people (1 vote per 211000 people), whereas California has one electoral vote per 645172 people. 


I think this is good in many ways so that the smaller states do not become marginalized and irrelevant. 

-----but we talk about people here not about states....looks to me that the people in california get marginalized.



I think the misconception is that United States is one entity.  We are actually 50 states, the District of Columbia, and a handful of protectorates all operating as separate units but organized and led by a federal establishment. 

In many ways, the Netherlands should be able to relate in a Europe dominated by France, Germany and Britain.
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Thanks for the info. I heard about this before but seeing it in numbers clarifies a lot. I still think the same though. Unlike other political bodies in the US the presidency is there for every person..no matter where he comes from. Bush has just as much tom say in California than he has in North Dakota. Th e only fair way I can think of is every person one vote. I do understand senate votes etc. so there I don't see the problem with amount of seats in congres per state.

Another question: do the number of electroral votes change in the years (when population changes??)