Borid B: You are quite right about my North Dakota numbers, I’m not sure how I f**ked that one up (snagged the wrong number from this page.) Let me try again. The point still stands:
population / electoral votes:
ND: 638,800 / 3
CA: 29,760,021 / 54
People / electoral vote:
ND: 212,933
CA: 551,111
These are 1990 census numbers. I am looking at total population as opposed to electorate, though one would think that the numbers would be similar whether one looks at total population, population of voting age, registered voters or those who voted. If anybody wants to gather those numbers, feel free . . . And, don’t forget, if tomorrow everybody from North Dakota moved to South Dakota except for, say, 1,000 people, they still get 3 electoral votes.
Let me also say that who did or didn’t win the popular vote is basically irrelevant in a campaign where the candidates campaigned to win individual states. Their whole strategy changes.
Still, each California citizen is represented about half as strongly as a citizen from North Dakota. This is one thing which makes the Electoral College so interesting.