Colorado is considering changing its electoral vote rules to distribute them proportionately by the popular vote, instead of winner take all. Were you aware that states could independently change their elector policy? I sure wasn't.
Even if every state adopted this policy it wouldn't address a more fundamental problem, which is that not every vote is equal in a national election. Though it's unclear whether this is truly a flaw, as the framers of the constitution wanted small states to be somewhat overrepresented in the electoral college, as they are in congress.
The most valuable vote in America is one cast in Wyoming, where they have 3 electoral votes for a population of 500,000, or one for every 167,000 people. At the bottom of the list is Texas, with one electoral vote for every 650,000 people, roughly four times as many.
Here's a list of what every individual resident's vote is worth relative to the 'gold standard' of Wyoming.
| 100% Wyoming 89% Dist. of Columbia 81% Vermont 79% North Dakota 77% Alaska 66% South Dakota 62% Rhode Island 61% Delaware 55% Montana 53% Hawaii 52% New Hampshire 51% Maine 49% Idaho 48% Nebraska 46% West Virginia 45% New Mexico 40% Iowa 37% Nevada 37% Kansas 37% Arkansas 36% Utah 35% Mississippi 34% Connecticut 33% Louisiana 33% Alabama 33% Oklahoma | 33% Colorado 33% Minnesota 33% Oregon 32% Kentucky 32% South Carolina 32% Missouri 31% Tennessee 31% Massachusetts 31% Wisconsin 30% Maryland 30% Washington 30% Arizona 30% North Carolina 30% Indiana 29% Virginia 29% Ohio 29% New Jersey 29% Georgia 28% Pennsylvania 28% Michigan 28% Illinois 27% New York 27% Florida 26% California 26% Texas |
13 Sep 04