JDG wrote:
> A lot of people have recently suggested that the "winner-take-all" > system of
>electoral college votes is somehow unfair or unjust. > Unfortunately, this meme
>is a very devious one, whose logical > extension undermines our entire basis of
>government.
While you are throwing around words like devious and dangerous and phrases like
"undermining our entire basis of government", consider this. The electoral college
grants Alaska 1 elector for every 206,000 people in their state. It grants
California 1 elector for every 613,000 (numbers are approximate). You can say what
you want about the electoral college, but I just can't agree that a person's vote
should count more because they live in a big, empty place.
For those of you who don't understand why the discrepancy is so large, here's the
reason: Each state gets one elector for every member of our bicameral congress.
Every state gets a number of representatives that is proportional to it's population.
Every state regardless of population, gets two senators. So Alaska with about
620,000 citizens, gets only one representative, but they have three members of
congress and thus three electors. California has approximately 33,150,000 people, 52
representatives, 2 senators and, of course, 54 electors.
Now _that's_ devious.
Doug
