• ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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    1 month ago

    Each state’s Electoral College vote total is a combination of their House and Senate seats. Low population states are overrepresented in the Senate because each state gets two seats no matter their population. The House of Representatives has been capped at 435 seats which means lower populated states tend to be overrepresented there as well.

    https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/435-representatives/

    Republicans tend to do well in rural areas which typically have low populations. Democrats tend to do well in cities which typically have high populations. This pans out to Democrats wining states that have high populations and Republicans winning states with low populations.

    Since Republican voters tend to be from areas with low population they tend to be overrepresneted in the Electoral College. This means Democrats need high voter turnout to compensate for their voters being underrepresented. This is how Trump won the Electoral College in 2016 despite losing the popular vote.