Wednesday, February 9, 2011

US Presidential Trivia: Which state has the 2nd most electoral votes?

The United States Presidential Elections are run by a unique set of rules known as the Electoral Collage.  Instead of being directly elected via the popular vote, President's campaign in individual states - for most states, if they win a state, they receive all of that state's electoral votes.  Electoral votes are based indirectly on the states population - specifically, the number is determined by the amount of a state's entire Congressional delegation (Senators + Congressmen).  That number changes every 10 years with a new US census.

So, off of our update of Pocket Trivia: US Presidents - What state has the 2nd most electoral votes?  Is it Texas, Florida, California or Ohio?

The answer to this one is Texas.  It's funny - you never hear about Texas (or California, for that matter) in the Electoral Collage because both of their votes are usually basically pre-determined - California hasn't been won by a Republican since 1988, and Texas by a Democrat since 1976.  Ohio and Florida tend to swing back and forth.  Anyway, in the 2008 elections, here are the top ten states:

1)  California - 55
2)  Texas - 38
3)  New York - 31
4)  Florida - 27
5 & 6)  Pennsylvania & Illinois - 21
7, 8 & 9)  New Jersey, North Carolina & Georgia  - 15
10)  Virginia - 13

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