Registered Voters & The Electoral College
Our country’s current population is roughly 328 million and increasing at the moderate annual rate of .8%. Currently all of our growth rate is due to immigration as our death rate is slightly higher than our birth rate.
There are currently 229 million persons over the age of 18 (potential voters) and 200 million are registered to vote. Voter registration is up by 54 million since 2000! There are currently 157 million in our workforce. The very rough breakdown of the registration is: Democrats = 82 million, Republicans = 67 million & Independents = 51 million.
Following stats are from 2003 which is why the totals will not equal our 2019 population, but the ratios are still roughly the same. The electoral college allows for a vote for each Representative and each Senator. I have The intention was to give the smaller (by population) states more influence. Note that Wyoming has more than 3 times the number of votes, per capita, as compared to California:
| States | 2004 Population | 2004 Electoral Votes | % vs. National Average |
| Alabama | 4,530,182 | 9 Reps: 6 Rep 1 Dem | 108% |
| Alaska | 655,435 | 3 1 Rep | 250% |
| Arizona | 5,743,834 | 10 4 Rep 5 Dem | 95% |
| Arkansas | 2,752,629 | 6 4 Rep | 119% |
| California | 35,893,799 | 55 8 Rep 45 Dem | 84% |
| Colorado | 4,601,403 | 9 3 Rep 4 Dem | 107% |
| Connecticut | 3,503,604 | 7 0 Rep 5 Dem | 109% |
| Delaware | 830,364 | 3 0 Rep 1 Dem | 197% |
| Dist. of Columbia | 553,523 | 3 0 Rep 0 Dem | 296% |
| Florida | 17,397,161 | 27 14 Rep 13 Dem | 85% |
| Georgia | 8,829,383 | 15 10 Rep 5 Dem | 93% |
| Hawaii | 1,262,840 | 4 0 Rep 2 Dem | 173% |
| Idaho | 1,393,262 | 4 2 Rep 0 Dem | 157% |
| Illinois | 12,713,634 | 21 5 Rep 13 Dem | 90% |
| Indiana | 6,237,569 | 11 7 Rep 2 Dem | 96% |
| Iowa | 2,954,451 | 7 1 Rep 3 Dem | 129% |
| Kansas | 2,735,502 | 6 3 Rep 1 Dem | 120% |
| Kentucky | 4,145,922 | 8 5 Rep 1 Dem | 105% |
| Louisiana | 4,515,770 | 9 5 Rep 1 Dem | 109% |
| Maine | 1,317,253 | 4 0 Rep 2 Dem | 166% |
| Maryland | 5,558,058 | 10 1 Rep 7 Dem | 98% |
| Massachusetts | 6,4716,505 | 12 0 Rep 9 Dem | 102% |
| Michigan | 10,112,620 | 17 7 Rep 7 Dem | 92% |
| Minnesota | 5,100,958 | 10 3 Rep 5 Dem | 107% |
| Mississippi | 2,902,966 | 6 3 Rep 1 Dem | 113% |
| Missouri | 5,754,618 | 11 6 Rep 2 Dem | 104% |
| Montana | 926,865 | 3 1 Rep 0 Dem | 177% |
| Nebraska | 1,747,214 | 5 3 Rep 0 Dem | 156% |
| Nevada | 2,334,771 | 5 1 Rep 3 Dem | 117% |
| New Hampshire | 1,299,500 | 4 0 Rep 2 Dem | 168% |
| New Jersey | 8,698,879 | 15 1 Rep 11 Dem | 94% |
| New Mexico | 1,903,289 | 5 0 Rep 3 Dem | 143% |
| New York | 19,227,088 | 31 6 Rep 21 Dem | 88% |
| North Carolina | 8,541,221 | 15 9 Rep 3 Dem 1 Open | 96% |
| North Dakota | 634,366 | 3 1 Rep 0 Dem | 258% |
| Ohio | 11,459,011 | 20 10 Rep 4 Dem | 95% |
| Oklahoma | 3,523,553 | 7 4 Rep 1 Dem | 108% |
| Oregon | 3,594,586 | 7 1 Rep 4 Dem | 106% |
| Pennsylvania | 12,406,292 | 21 8 Rep 10 Dem | 92% |
| Rhode Island | 1,080,632 | 4 0 Rep 2 Dem | 202% |
| South Carolina | 4,198,068 | 8 5 Rep 2 Dem | 104% |
| South Dakota | 770,883 | 3 1 Rep 0 Dem | 212% |
| Tennessee | 5,900,962 | 11 7 Rep 2 Dem | 102% |
| Texas | 22,490,022 | 34 23 Rep 13 Dem | 83% |
| Utah | 2,389,039 | 5 3 Rep 1 Dem | 114% |
| Vermont | 621,394 | 3 0 Rep 1 Dem | 264% |
| Virginia | 7,459,827 | 13 4 Rep 7 Dem | 95% |
| Washington | 6,203,788 | 11 3 Rep 7 Dem | 97% |
| West Virginia | 1,815,354 | 5 3 Rep 0 Dem | 150% |
| Wisconsin | 5,509,026 | 10 5 Rep 3 Dem | 99% |
| Wyoming | 506,529 | 3 1 Rep 0 Dem | 323% |
Only two states apportion their electoral votes (Maine & Nebraska) according to the popular vote. In all other states it is all or nothing. Consider the following example: Three candidates are on the ballot. The Democrat gets 39% of the popular vote, the Republican gets 38% and the Libertarian gets 23%. The Democrat receives all of that state’s vote. Note: there are a few states that require the winner to have at least 50%, but most do not.
There have only been three occasions when the winner of the presidential election did not win the popular vote:
In 1824, John Quincy Adams (Democratic-Republican) was elected president despite not winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson was the winner in both categories. Jackson received 38,000 more popular votes than Adams, and beat him in the electoral vote 99 to 84. Despite his victories, Jackson didn’t reach the majority 131 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president. In fact, neither candidate did. The decision went to the House of Representatives, which voted Adams into the White House.
In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) won the election (by a margin of one electoral vote), but he lost the popular vote by more than 250,000 ballots to Samuel J. Tilden.
In 1888, Benjamin Harrison (Republican) received 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland’s 168, winning the presidency. But Harrison lost the popular vote by more than 90,000 votes.
In 2000, George W. Bush (Republican) was declared the winner of the general election and became the 43rd president, but he didn’t win the popular vote either. Al Gore holds that distinction, garnering about 540,000 more votes than Bush. However, Bush won the electoral vote, 271 to 266.
In 2016, Donald Trump (Republican) won the electoral vote by 304 to 227 over Hillary Clinton, but Trump lost the popular vote. Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump, according to an analysis by the Associated Press of the certified results in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Based on this history, if you are a Republican, you likely favor the electoral college method, but if you are a Democrat not! r