Don Marti

Sun 17 Apr 2005 08:33:51 PM PDT

Vote in California? Why?

As of the 2000 Census, California has about 34 million people. Wyoming has about 490,000. In the 2000 Presidential election, Wyoming got 3 electoral votes. California got 54.

Each vote for President in Wyoming counts the same as almost four votes in California.

Wyoming has two Senators; California has two. On a per-capita basis, Wyoming has ten times the representation in the Senate that California does.

Wyoming has one Representative; California has 52. Although that's closer to proportional representation, each House district in California is still 1.3 times the size of the one district in Wyoming.

The one part of the US Constitution that can't be amended is equal representation for all states in the Senate.

Why not split up California? Pick a target population, say four or five million, and group together counties to split California into eight or so states.