A Priori Voting Power and the U.S. Electoral College
نویسنده
چکیده
This paper uses the Banzhaf power measure to calculate the a priori voting power of individual voters under the existing Electoral College system for electing the President of the United States, as well as under variants of this system in which electoral votes are either apportioned among the states in a different manner or cast by the states in a different manner. While the present winner-take-all manner of casting state electoral gives a substantial advantage to voters in the largest states, this advantage is diluted by the small-state advantage in apportionment. Moreover, most of the alternative Electoral College plans that have been proposed to remedy this large-state advantage give an equally substantial voting power advantage to voters in small states. Direct popular election of the President uniquely maximizes and equalizes individual voting power.
منابع مشابه
A Note on Banzhaf Power in the Electoral College in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election
One way to measure the a priori voting power of the states in the U.S. Electoral College is to view it as a weighted voting system and calculate power indices of the states. However this does not take into account the fact that in a given presidential election some states are almost certain to vote for a particular candidates, nor does it allow for states to split their electoral votes between ...
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