Astead Herndon

It's a big reason why Congress passes less legislation than ever, why the Senate rarely seems to reflect public opinion, or why presidential elections obsess over the same seven states.

Let me explain.

I'm going to show three charts in three minutes that help you understand why American democracy needs to be improved, not just protected, and why one person, one vote is more myth than reality.

For those listening, I'm going to bring up a couple charts that show the structural health of our democracy or lack thereof.

The first is about the Electoral College.

Now, everybody knows that the Electoral College is a little messed up,

We don't choose the president via direct popular vote.

We choose it through this funky system made hundreds of years ago.

But did you know that it's not just that the Electoral College causes us to focus on six or seven states for battleground presidential results?

It also means that the electoral votes themselves aren't distributed equally.

Let's look at the relative voting power by state in the 2024 election.

The least populous states, places like Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, all of that has the highest relative voting power, if you think about the population of those states, to their electoral votes.

The smallest relative voting power belongs to populous states that don't get as many electoral votes.

Places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York.

The second chart I'm going to show is about the Senate, because I think it takes the last problem and makes it a little more clear.

Because the Senate has two senators for every state, it is equally distributed in terms of representation.

Right?

Wrong.

The Senate actually shows how least populous states have more power and the racial and demographic impacts of that distribution.

Take a look at this chart that the Washington Post made in 2023.