Why doesn't each state count as 1 electoral vote for the presidential elections. Then their would not be pivotal states at all. It seems like the president would not get elected mainly by the most populated states this way.

wouldn't that mean that the opinions of people in wyoming carry more weight than the people of california.

no, it means that their opinions would carry the exact same weight as the people of california

Isn't that what the electoral college was developed for in the first place, so that lesser populated states would have as much of a say in the election as states such as california.

no, it means that their opinions would carry the exact same weight as the people of california

There's a half million people in Wyoming, there's 33 million people in California. Roughly 25% of the population of each state is under 18. Discounting felons and other disenfranchised for individuals, that means there's about 375,000 potential voters in Wyoming, and 24.75 million potential voters in California. Assuming 50% turnout, that means each Wyoming vote counts for 1/187,500th of an electoral vote; each California vote counts for 1/12,375,00th of an electoral vote.

To put another way, twenty times as many people live in Los Angeles County than in Wyoming.

Isn't that what the electoral college was developed for in the first place, so that lesser populated states would have as much of a say in the election as states such as california.

Not exactly. Each state recieves a number of electoral votes based on its Congressional delegation. The Congressional delegation consists of two Senate seats (which were designed to give smaller states, such as New Hampshire, a voice) and the number of seats in the House (which was designed to give an appropriately greater level of influence to larger states, such as Virginia).

Very interesting. That information seems to be incredibly acurate.

Well having one vote per state would be the most anti-democratic thing the US could do. Consider what Star said, the US electorate would be as powerful as it’s weakest link (whichever state has the least amount of ppl). Already the Electoral College has shown itself to be a farce in the modern democratic world, its an old bureaucratic hurdle that serves very little purpose today.

How does each state's electoral vote get determined? (number of electors)

I know star of eight already said how, but could someone elaborate a little more on that.

Each state has a number of electoral votes equal to the number of Senators and House Members it is eligible to send to the Congress.

Automatic 2 seats in Congress.
Number of seats in the house is based on the population in the last census.

As was exemplified by our last Presidental election, we are not a one man one vote nation. That may disturbe some, but it seems to work just fine.

Abolish the Electorial College, that would be much more prudent.

I have to agree with cosmic here.

ditto. "crush the infamous thing." :D

Automatic 2 seats in Congress.
actually, 3. one representative and two senators. krazie, check out the connecticut compromise.