Electoral College Math California Wyoming

California in addition to having the most electoral seats it is also the most populous state with an estimated population of 39 6 million.

Electoral college math california wyoming.

Electoral college math popular vote trump clinton california founding fathers. 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. That s the most extreme example but if you average the 10 most populous states and compare the power. California has 55 electoral votes.

The funky math of the electoral college. Because each elector in california represents 3 18 times as many people as each elector in wyoming the standard explanation tells us that wyoming has 3 18 electoral votes to each one of. An elector in wyoming represents around 150 000 voters whereas a california elector represents the votes of some 500 000 residents. 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.

In the electoral college the winner of california gets 55 votes while the winner of wyoming or vermont gets just three. That means that in the electoral college each individual wyoming vote weighs 3 6 times more than an individual californian s vote. Each vote cast in wyoming is worth 3 6 as much as the same vote cast in california. In the senate california and wyoming are equals.

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 fact to make up for. Subtract trump s california votes from his national total and get 58 501 018 from the rest of the country. 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.

How can that be you might ask. 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. Under the electoral college system each state is assigned a certain number of votes.