Electoral College Math California Wyoming

How can that be you might ask.

Electoral college math california wyoming.

Consider that california the most populous state has 39 144 818 residents and 55 electoral college votes. Article ii section 1 clause 2 of the. Seven states and the district of columbia d c have the minimum number of seats which is three namely alaska vermont delaware north dakota south dakota wyoming and montana. Each vote cast in wyoming is worth 3 6 as much as the same vote cast in california.

In fact to make up for. In the senate california and wyoming are equals. The electoral college is a body of electors established by the united states constitution which forms every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president of the united states the electoral college consists of 538 electors and an absolute majority of electoral votes 270 or more is required to win the election. That s the most extreme example but if you average the 10 most populous states and compare the power.

Electoral college math popular vote trump clinton california founding fathers. That means that in the electoral college each individual wyoming vote weighs 3 6 times more than an individual californian s vote. Under the electoral college system each state is assigned a certain number of votes. That makes their votes over 3 times more powerful than ours.

There are a total of 538 electoral votes and the number of votes each state receives is proportional to its size the bigger the state s population the more votes it gets. In the electoral college the winner of california gets 55 votes while the winner of wyoming or vermont gets just three. Although wyoming had a population in the last census of only 563 767 it gets 3 votes in the electoral college based on its two senators and one congressman. Voters from sparsely populated states like wyoming are able to pack over three times the electoral punch than in large states like california.

It s easy to see when you do the math. An elector in wyoming represents around 150 000 voters whereas a california elector represents the votes of some 500 000 residents. Subtract trump s california votes from his national total and get 58 501 018 from the rest of the country. The funky math of the electoral college.