the Electoral College favours smaller States than the bigger ones ?
Can anyone explain why this would be the case ? And what it means to the outcome of the elections ?
First off, state governors are elected by popular vote but not our president. The reason is quite convoluted and many Americans do not understand it or how it came about.
Some claim that the Electoral College was developed in order to balance the interests of states with low population with those of high population. The number of electors in each state depends upon the population of that state. It's the electors who actually vote for the president, and they usually vote the same as the people of that state, however there have been times when they didn't. And if that isn't convoluted enough, there have been five times where presidential candidates have won the overall popular vote but lost the election due to the electoral votes.
In early 19th century there was a push to end the Electoral College (12th Amendment) but by then, there developed a division between the North and South and the population was greater in the North so the South pushed to keep the Electoral College and include slaves in their population count. Neither the free slaves in the North or the slaves in the South could vote, but the number of electors in each state depended upon the population, so the South had a large number of slaves which boosted their electoral count even if a black slave only counted as a fraction of a white person.
Although slightly altered, the Electoral College still stands today. While not a true democracy, each of our major political parties have learned to use it to their advantage at one time or another.
