California’s Voters Are Being Marginalized
By: Jan Raymond
Tags: Supreme Court, Us Senate, California Independence, Electoral College, California Politics

California has about 40 million residents, about 12% of the US population. Federal taxes paid by Californians amount to 15% of the Federal Budget, so we pay more than our fair share of Federal Taxes. Yet every single voter in California has less influence on national policy that any voter in any other state.

Our voting power is diluted by the two Senators per state rule. California with 40 million people has two Senators. So does Wyoming, 80 times smaller than California with a half million residents.

40 States have populations less than 1/3 of California’s population, so a single vote for a Senator in 40 of the 50 states is equal in influence to 3 California votes.

20 states have populations less than 10% of California. One voter in each of those 20 states has as much influence in the Senate as 12 California voters.

A similar, dynamic plays out in the Electoral College. Each state gets one Electoral College vote for each of their two Senators. So each California voter’s influence on the Electoral College is significantly less than every voter in every other state, so each Californian’s vote for President counts less than a vote in any other state.

Many of the most consequential decisions in Federal government are made in the Senate. Approving Presidential appointments are exclusively within the realm of the Senate. In particular approving Supreme Court nominations are exclusively within the power of the Senate.

As a result of the recent Senate appointments, California, a largely secular, tolerant state, will be dealing for decades with a Supreme Court dominated by religious conservatives prone to seeing the world through the lens of their religious beliefs, rather than secular values like equal treatment of all and respect for women’s ability to make decisions about their body and their future.

What can California do?

The most appealing notion, in this age of Trump, is for California to withdraw from the Union. It would be the 5th largest economy in the world. It would do fine as a stand alone country, not the least because it would no longer be supporting other states whose tax revenues to the Federal government are less than the cost of the benefits they receive from the Federal Government. But divorce would be complicated. So attempting negotiation to achieve a more fair representation should be the better first choice.

There are a number of possible solutions.

California could split in two, three or four different states so it is more typical of the median size of states in the Union. Each state would get two Senators so each division would eliminate some of the devaluation of each California voters influence.

Alternatively, or simultaneously, California could also push to have small states combine with other small states to become bigger states closer in population to California.

But the quickest approach would be to develop another formula for Senate representation that does not devalue the votes of California voters. A solution that would be pretty quick and easy would be to decouple the existing 100 member Senate from individual states and have them represent regions, apportioned by population so each Senatorial region has roughly the same population. The transition could be pretty simple, at a certain point each existing member of the Senate stops representing a specific state and is assigned to a region. When they next come up for re-election they appear on the ballot throughout the region.

It is time for California’s leaders to step up and start developing a strategy to eliminate the devaluation of influence being foisted on California voters.