2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Racist Meme: The South Doesn't Count [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)California, like the votes of people living in other large states like Texas and New York count less in the electoral college because that institution consists of one elector for each representative a state has and one for each senator.
Since we have, like all other states, only two senators for our very large population, our votes are not worth as much in the electoral college as the votes of people in smaller states.
We can change all of this unfairness by electing the president by a direct vote and doing away with the electoral college.
In the past, with a constitutional amendment, we changed the way that senators are elected. We can get rid of the electoral college. I am all in favor of doing it.
While within the Democratic Party, we see the vote of a Democrat living in Nebraska or Alabama as of equal importance with the vote of a strongly Democratic state, they really aren't when it comes to election time.
The electoral college is relevant to this issue in that in most states the electors for the electoral college are elected in a winner take all election. And the minority, in the states in question, the Democratic voters can vote for Democrats all they want, election after election, but the Republicans will represent the states in the electoral college.
We should change that if we are serious about giving Democrats in states like Mississippi a real voice in the presidential elections.