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Reply to "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Gives AOC a Reality Check on Her Dream of Axing the Electoral College"

The Electoral College, as composed today, is an un-democratic institution.  Since, per the Constitution, it is based on the number of Representatives and Senators of each State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  However, the number of Representatives is not equally proportionate to the population of each State.  Take for instance, Wyoming:  with a population of approximately 578,000, it has 1 Representative and 2 Senators which equals out to 3 Electoral College votes, a ration of approximately 200,000 to 1 (people to electoral votes.)  California, on the opposite extreme, with a population of approximately 39,600,000, has 55 Representatives and 2 Senators, equaling 57 Electoral College votes.  California’s people to electoral vote ratio is about 720,000 to 1.  That is nowhere near equally proportioned.  In order for it to be equally proportioned, California would need 198 Electoral College votes (a ratio of 200,000 to 1.) 

To look at it another way, in California, using the 200,000 to 1 ratio, only 11 million people are represented in the House and 28 million are not.  Another way to look at it, a citizen of Wyoming has 68 times more political power than a citizen of California does.  Hardly equal.

Why this vast inequality?  Because the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 fixed the total number of seats in the House of Representatives to 435.  This means citizens of the United States will be unequally represented in the House and the Electoral College.  To Make every citizen equally represented, the States would need the following equally proportioned representation:

State

2019 Pop. (est.)

Representatives

Electoral Votes

California

39,747,267

197

199

Texas

29,087,070

143

145

Florida

21,646,155

106

108

New York

19,491,339

95

97

Pennsylvania

12,813,969

62

64

Illinois

12,700,381

62

64

Ohio

11,718,568

57

59

Georgia

10,627,767

51

53

North Carolina

10,497,741

50

52

Michigan

10,020,472

48

50

New Jersey

8,922,547

43

45

Virginia

8,571,946

41

43

Washington

7,666,343

36

38

Arizona

7,275,070

34

36

Massachusetts

6,939,373

33

35

Tennessee

6,833,793

32

34

Indiana

6,718,616

32

34

Missouri

6,147,861

29

31

Maryland

6,062,917

28

30

Wisconsin

5,832,661

27

29

Colorado

5,770,545

27

29

Minnesota

5,655,925

26

28

South Carolina

5,147,111

24

26

Alabama

4,898,246

22

24

Louisiana

4,652,581

21

23

Kentucky

4,484,047

20

22

Oregon

4,245,901

19

21

Oklahoma

3,948,950

18

20

Connecticut

3,567,871

16

18

Utah

3,221,610

14

16

Iowa

3,167,997

14

16

Nevada

3,087,025

13

15

Arkansas

3,026,412

13

15

Mississippi

2,987,895

13

15

Kansas

2,910,931

13

15

New Mexico

2,096,034

8

10

Nebraska

1,940,919

8

10

West Virginia

1,791,951

7

9

Idaho

1,790,182

7

9

Hawaii

1,416,589

5

7

New Hampshire

1,363,852

5

7

Maine

1,342,097

5

7

Montana

1,074,532

3

5

Rhode Island

1,056,738

3

5

Delaware

975,033

3

5

South Dakota

892,631

2

4

North Dakota

760,900

2

4

Alaska

735,720

2

4

Vermont

627,180

1

3

Wyoming

572,381

1

3

Totals:

1641

1643

 


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