Small States Are Ignored in Presidential Elections
Under Current State-by-State Winner-Take-All Rule
The states are arranged in this table according to their number of electoral votes.
Electoral votes
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
8
8
9
9
9
10
10
10
10
11
11
11
11
12
13
14
15
16
16
18
20
20
29
29
38
55
538
July 9, 2015
State
Alaska
Delaware
D.C.
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Vermont
Wyoming
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Idaho
Maine
Rhode Island
Nebraska
New Mexico
West Virginia
Iowa
Nevada
Arkansas
Kansas
Mississippi
Utah
Connecticut
Oklahoma
Oregon
Kentucky
Louisiana
Colorado
Alabama
South Carolina
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Maryland
Missouri
Arizona
Indiana
Massachusetts
Tennessee
Washington
Virginia
New Jersey
North Carolina
Michigan
Georgia
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Illinois
Florida
New York
Texas
California
Total
Events
13
27
13
● Only 1 of the 13 smallest states received
any of the 253 campaign events in the 2012
general-election campaign for President,
namely the closely divided “battleground” state
of New Hampshire. The small states are
ignored not because they are small, but because
they are almost all one-party states in
presidential elections.
● Only 3 of the 25 smallest states (7 or fewer
electoral votes) received any of the 253
campaign events in 2012. The 3 states were the
closely divided “battleground” states of New
Hampshire, Iowa, and Nevada.
23
18
1
36
3
1
73
5
40
253
● 80% of the general-election campaign events
were focused on only 9 closely divided
battleground states—mostly larger states.