Electoral Votes
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
How many electoral votes per person does your state have?
Why do different states have different numbers of electoral votes per capita (person) from one another?
Electoral college votes are distributed to states based on their number of US representatives plus their number of senators. How does this mechanism by which the electoral vote are distributed lead to some states having more electoral votes per person than other states?
Why do we even have an electoral college any way? Why not just vote with the winner being the person with the most votes? Describe the history of the electoral college.
Central to the concept of democracy is the idea that all people are politically equal. Some would claim that in a truly democratic country, every person in every state would have the same electoral votes per person (in other words, the color of each state on the map would be the same). Respond to this claim.
The average electoral vote represents 436,000 people, but that number rises and falls per state depending on that state’s population over 18 years of age. Calculate the exact number of people an electoral vote represents in your state.
48 states give all their electoral votes to the overall winner of their state’s popular vote. But Nebraska and Maine both divide their electoral votes by district, thus one candidate could win some of their state’s electoral votes with another candidate could winning another. State legislatures get to decide how to allocate their electoral votes, and recently Donald Trump tried to get Nebraska legislators to switch their state electoral votes to be awarded by a winner take all system like all the other states besides Maine. Recently, Nebraska legislators rejected this proposal to help Trump win the Electoral College. Do you think Maine and Nebraska’s electoral college systems are more democratic than the other 48 states?
How does the map of electoral vote power (above) relate to the map of the percentage of state residents who are white (below)*?
If I wanted to increase my presidential electoral power, what state would I most want to move from and what state would I most want to move to?
How does this map affect strategy in presidential elections?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
The National Popular Vote Plan is a proposal to undo the unequal power of the electoral college. Read about the plan and contact your state legislator to share your opinion of the plan.
Get Creative
What adjective best describes the electoral college?
Learning Extension*
Read about the fact that the electoral college was created to empower slave states. Then check out Ravi’s interactive map of relative electoral votes per person per state.
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