Electoral College
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The Constitution of the United States (Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 and later revised by the Twelfth Amendment), established the Electoral College system, which apportioned electoral votes to states based on the number of Congressional Representatives and Senators each state has. Congressional Representatives are apportioned by the population of each state but since every state has 2 Senators (regardless of population), this would give states with smaller populations a chance to compete with higher-populated states. Let's see precisely how this works. Let's compare 2 states only by the number of Representatives each has (which is based on population). Comparing Wyoming to California, the calculations are:   State   Population   Reps   Population Per   Representative   Wyoming         568,300     1   568,300   California   37,341,998   53   704,566 So, we can say that each state gets 1 Representative (and 1 electoral vote) for about 650,000 citizens. That seems (roughly speaking) to be a fair and equal representation. However, when the two additional electoral votes are added to each state, the advantage clearly lies with the sparsely-populated states. Let's look at Wyoming and California again.   State   Population   Electoral   Votes   Population Per   Electoral Vote   Wyoming         568,300     3   189,433   California   37,341,998   55   678,945 This means that Wyoming is apportioned 3½ times more electoral votes per citizen than California does! (678,945 ÷ 189,433 = 3½) Shouldn't all elections adhere to the principle of "one person one vote"? In some states, one person's vote could be worth many times more than the vote of a person from another state. Looking at the chart below, we see that the ten least-populated states have between 2 to 3½ times more voting power than California! Yes, the electoral college certainly gives the smaller-populated states an "edge" over the larger-populated ones. Perhaps this is too much of an advantage? So, now the question is, does the electoral college system require changing or perhaps even total elimination?   State   Population   Rank   Population   Electoral    Votes   Population Per    Electoral Vote   Electoral   VotingPower    ComparedTo   California   Wyoming   50       568,300   3   189,433   3.58   District of Columbia   ***       601,723   3   200,574   3.39   Vermont   49      630,337   3   210,112   3.23   North Dakota   48      675,905   3   225,302   3.01   Alaska   47       721,523   3   240,508   2.82   Rhode Island   43       1,055,248   4   263,812   2.57   South Dakota   46      819,761   3   273,254   2.48   Delaware   45      900,877   3   300,292   2.26   New Hampshire   42      1,321,446   4   330,362   2.06   Montana   44      994,416   3   331,472   2.05   Maine   41      1,333,074   4   333,269   2.04   Hawaii   40      1,366,862   4   341,716   1.99   Nebraska   38      1,831,824   5   366,365   1.85   West Virginia   37      1,859,814   5   371,963   1.83   Idaho   39      1,573,500   4   393,375   1.73   New Mexico   36      2,067,273   5   413,455   1.64   Nevada   35      2,709,432   6   451,572   1.50   Utah   34      2,770,764   6   461,794   1.47   Kansas   33      2,863,812   6   477,302   1.42   Arkansas   32      2,926,228   6   487,705   1.39   Mississippi   31      2,978,240   6   496,373   1.37   Connecticut   29      3,581,630   7   511,661   1.33   Iowa   30      3,053,788   6   508,965   1.33   South Carolina   24      4,645,977   9   516,220   1.32   Minnesota   21      5,314,880   10   531,488   1.28   Alabama   23      4,802,980   9   533,664   1.27   Oklahoma   28      3,764,880   7   537,840   1.26   Kentucky   26      4,350,606   8   543,826   1.25   Oregon   27      3,848,605   7   549,801   1.23   Washington   13      6,753,370   12   562,781   1.21   Colorado   22      5,044,928   9   560,548   1.21   Wisconsin   20      5,698,232   10   569,823   1.19   Louisiana   25      4,553,964   8   569,246   1.19   Tennessee   17      6,375,429   11   579,584   1.17   Maryland   19      5,789,928   10   578,993   1.17   Arizona   16      6,412,698   11   582,973   1.16   Indiana   15      6,501,582   11   591,053   1.15   Massachusetts   14      6,559,641   11   596,331   1.14   Missouri   18      6,011,480   10   601148   1.13   Georgia   09       9,727,564   16   607,973   1.12   Michigan   08       9,911,622   16   619,476   1.10   Virginia  12       8,037,733   13   618,287   1.10   New Jersey  11       8,807,496   14   629,107   1.08   Pennsylvania  06       12,734,910   20   636,746   1.07   Illinois  05       12,864,384   20   643,219   1.06   Ohio  07       11,568,496   18   642,694   1.06   North Carolina  10       9,565,777   15   637,718   1.06   Florida  04       18,900,783   29   651,751   1.04   Texas  02       25,268,436   38   664,959   1.02   New York  03       19,421,046   29   669,691   1.01   California  01       37,341,998   55   678,945   1.00 1 The 23rd Amendment allows the District of Columbia to be allocated no more electoral votes than the least populous state. (currently 3)