Liberal Arts Blog — the Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court — What Do They Have in Common?
Liberal Arts Blog — Monday is the Joy of Math, Statistics, and Numbers Day
Today’s Topic — the Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court — what do they have in common?
From a democratic perspective, they share problematic math. They are totally at odds with the sacred principle of “one person, one vote.” Do you understand the math of each? Today, a review of some basics and a hint of really funky stuff. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE MATH: BASIC AND FUNKY
1. The basic rule: each state has the number of electors equal to the number of Senators and Representatives it has in Congress. DC has 3 electors which is the number equal to that of the smallest state.
2. In other words, 100 Senators plus 435 Congressmen plus 3 electors from DC = 538.
3. The math gets funky when you try to work out how a campaign should allocate its funds across states. Some research suggests that resources should be allocated proportional to the three-halves power of the states electoral votes!
NB: “if one state has four times the electoral votes of another state, rather than give it quadruple the attention and ads, it’s in a campaign’s interest to give it eight times as much, all else being equal…This isn’t just an academic result… Studies show campaigns actually do allocate their resources this way. If anything, they over-invest in the large states. As 1964’s Republican nominee Barry Goldwater put it, you have to “go shooting where the ducks are.” But not all experts agree on this “large state effect.” For details check out the following link (which also discusses the importance of swing states).
The Funky Math of the Electoral College
THE SENATE — Wyoming versus California — 68X
1. Wyoming: 2 senators with a population of 579,000
2. California 2 Senators with a population of 39.5 million
3. Ratio: power of Wyoming vote v California vote: 68X.
NB: Which is more important — protecting the rights of smaller states or the rights of minorities concentrated in larger states? Would the addition of Washington DC and Puerto as states be a welcome correction to the current bias? Will it happen if there is Democratic sweep in November?
THE SUPREME COURT — 9 versus 150 million
1. Should 9 black-robed lawyers have the power to negate the will of over one hundred million?
2. In fact, should just one of those nine have the power to do so? (that is the swing voter in a 5 to 4 decision).
3. Or are there just some things that are above the will of majorities however large?
NB: “The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote: they depend on the outcome of no elections.” Justice Robert H. Jackson (West Virginia v Barnette, 1943).
YOUR TURN
So what are your personal favorite magic numbers? What do they stand for? Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to math, statistics, or numbers in general. Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to math.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
