The Most Powerful People....

... in the United States in 2008.

With the national election soon approaching I did a little quick math (with the help of a spreadsheet) to answer a question.

Here is the question : What is the fewest number of states a candidate must win to accumulate the minimum number of electoral votes needed to win the election?

Here is the answer: Eleven (11).

THE DATA

Listed below are the states with the largest number of electoral votes in order...

California - 55
Texas - 34
New York - 31
Florida - 27
Illinois - 21
Pennsylvania - 21
Ohio - 20
Michigan - 17
Georgia - 15
New Jersey - 15
North Carolina - 15

The total of electoral votes from the above eleven states is 271.
270 are needed to win the election.

Assume that the individual vote count is tied in every precinct in every county in every state across the United States, EXCEPT in ONE precinct, in ONE county, in EACH of these eleven states.
And in each of these eleven precincts just one vote separates the the winner and the loser.
And in each of these eleven precincts the one winning vote is for the same party/candidate for President.
Thus, each of these eleven votes would win their precinct and the entire state for that party/candidate.
These eleven votes, then, would decide the election for the entire nation.



Will you be one of the eleven?

Your vote is important.

..................................................

Contrariwise, a candidate/party could win all ten of the states with the most electoral votes and still lose the election to the candidate/party who won the forty-one remaining states with the least electoral votes.
Again, only one vote in each state is required.
That would only require forty-one people.
.