Re: Math Against Tyranny - US Electorial College

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Hi Beth and the great list at the Hosta-Open,

RE: >> the electoral college makes the whole process fair, especially between small and large population states.

 

This is an indication of how we accept the premise as valid.   The Electoral college made sense in another era when populations weren't nearly so large.  Maybe it would be fairer if the Presidential Candidate had to win 26 states, instead of 270 Electoral votes. 

 

Let's say California has 41 Electoral votes (I'm not certain of the number, but that's probably close).  Now let's say 8,000,000 vote, and the state goes to candidate X, with 60% of the vote, or 4,800,000 votes.  This leaves 3,200,000 votes for candidate Y, but he/she garners NO electoral votes.  Now, lets take 10 other states with a TOTAL of 40 Electoral votes and a vote count of of 8,000,000.  These states are all won by Candidate Y with percentage win of 80% to 20% for X. 

 

Here is how this totals up:

 

Electoral Votes

Candidate X = 41

Candidate Y = 40

 

Popular Vote

Candidate X = 6,400,000

Candidate Y = 9,600,000

 

Now this is a hypothetical, and I'm going to have to do some more research in my voluminous spare time, but there are probably similar scenarios that are 100% feasible where the most popular candidate can have a sizeable lead but still fail to win the Electoral College election. 

 

You're up for rebuttal...

 

Andrew L.