Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but the electoral college process subverted the popular decision and irrevocably changed our country’s history. Essentially this country is set up to elect Republicans, and only a supremely popular Democrat can win. This year, though, we’ll see if a Republican can actually be unpopular enough to overcome the party’s advantage.

What advantage? Well — each state has a specific number of electors based on population but (a) at least one and (b) they also each have two more electors. Three electors doesn’t seem like it should make a big difference, but calculate the number of people represented by each elector in the most and least populous states and the impact is clear. One elector from California represents 713,000 people. One elector from Wyoming represents 195,000. And, yeah, Texas may be conservative and Vermont may be liberal … but on the whole, Republicans have an electoral advantage.

 

State	Electors	Population	# People / Elector
Wyoming	3	586,000	195,333
Vermont	3	626,000	208,667
Alaska	3	663,000	221,000
North Dakota	3	758,000	252,667
South Dakota	3	865,000	288,333
Delaware	3	946,000	315,333
Montana	3	1,042,000	347,333
Illinois	20	12,801,000	640,050
Pennsylvania	20	12,802,000	640,100
New York	29	19,795,000	682,586
Florida	29	20,612,000	710,759
Texas	38	27,862,000	733,211
California	55	39,250,000	713,636