State
Advantages
Big vs. Small - Who has more clout?
While many scholars argue that the electoral
college favors, or is advantageous to smaller states, there is also
an argument that it favors larger states. Small states are
'protected' by receiving a proportionally high amount of electoral
votes in reference to their populations, arguably giving them more
clout. (See an article on small state power here).
Simultaneously
though, voters in large states have more power through voting
potential, because they have the chance to affect a large amount of
electoral votes with their raw vote. As presidential
historian Allan Lichtman explains, "you've
got to have a majority 270 votes in the Electoral College to win,
and you accumulate them state-by-state, with large states like
California having the lions-share of the Electoral College
vote."
According to Lawrence D. Longley and Neal
Peirce in their book “Electoral College Primer 2000” (not
updated in 2004), the states enjoying a higher-than-average
advantage in Electoral College that year were the larger ones with
the most Electoral College votes.
Note that this finding is in direct opposition to the broad
assumption that smaller states have a greater advantage because of
the Electoral College. In
descending order, these states were
California – 55 votes
Texas – 34 votes
New York – 31 votes
Florida – 27 votes
Pennsylvania – 21 votes
Illinois – 21 votes
*Vote totals are current for 2001-2010
Longley and Peirce also declared that those
states with the lowest amount of clout in the Electoral College are
typically those that are argued to be favored by it, including
Maine, Montana, Nevada and Utah, each of which has 5 or fewer
electoral votes
This data turns out to be extremely hopeful,
considering that since only six states enjoy a large amount of
influence under the Electoral College system, the remaining 44 might
not put up such a fight when it comes to abolishing it.
Perhaps the key comes in convincing the smaller states of the
greater advantage to them in abolishing the Electoral College.
Despite the loss of “clout” to smaller states without the
Electoral College, they would gain a proportionally balanced
advantage by causing the larger states to lose their massively
overwhelming advantage in the system.
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The
Case for Reform
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