CALIFORNIA BREAKS THE ELECTORAL SCALE: STILL HAS MORE VOTES TO COUNT THAN WERE CAST IN 34 STATES

YouGov’s Will Jordan made an interesting observation over the weekend: California, home to 12 per cent of the U.S. population, still has more ballots to count than were cast in 34 states and Washington, D.C.

Unsurprisingly, California is already recording more votes cast than any other state, according to U.S. Election Atlas. But the 2.8 million ballots left to count is more than were cast in Wyoming, Alaska, D.C., Vermont, the Dakotas, Hawaii and Delaware combined. Not all will be valid ballots, but most should be, further extending Hillary Clinton’s 1.7-million-vote lead in the national popular vote.

Because of how the electoral college is structured, even small states get a minimum number of electors (just as they get a minimum number of senators and representatives). The lowest-population and lowest-votetally states — like Wyoming and Alaska — end up getting more electors-per-voter than does a place like California. This leads to the perception that the electoral college is hopelessly tilted toward those smaller states.

Interestingly, though, that’s not really the case. California’s in about the middle of the pack in terms of the number of electors each voter is worth. If all 2.8 million of those ballots are determined to be valid, though, the state will sink into the lower third.

Donald Trump won a lot of states where the voters are underrepresented in the electoral college, just as he won a lot where the voters are overrepresented.

In fact, on average across states, places where Trump won had slightly fewer electors per voter than did Clinton states.

The core dynamic of the election was that Clinton won her states big and Trump won his narrowly. That’s why the House is Republican, too: Democrats winning huge margins in many districts while Republicans win more narrow victories and the majority.