Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

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August 17, 2004

Political Trivia of the Day

Q. Which state is most over-represented in the Electoral College?

A. Since Electoral Votes are allocated to each state based on its number of Senators plus the number of Representatives, Wyoming, with the lowest population of all the states, has the greatest number of Electoral Votes relative to its population. Conversely, California with 55 Electoral Votes, is the most under-represented state.

As an example of the disparity, Brendan Loy observes that 11 "red states" make up "the heart of the solid Republican Mountain West and Great Plains" and have a population of 18.6 million. The state of New York, in contrast, has a population of 18.9 million. Nonetheless, New York has 33 electoral votes while the other 11 states have a combined total of 52.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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