A Priori Voting Power and the US Electoral College

Abstract

This chapter 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.