Your vote in Texas isn’t worth as much as some other states

The Electoral College handed Donald Trump the presidency, but it also lessens the voting power of big states like Texas.

Texas, home to 38 electoral votes, has an average of 532,756 potential voters for every electoral vote, according to 2015 census data.

In contrast, Wyoming has 149,066 potential voters for each of its three electoral votes, making a vote in Wyoming nearly four times more powerful than a vote in Texas.

Big states like Texas, California and New York all have more people per vote than small states like Wyoming and Vermont.

There are 537,216 potential voters for every electoral vote in New York, 545,892 potential voters for every electoral vote in California, and just 168,613 potential voters for every electoral vote in Vermont.

Electoral votes are determined by each state’s number of representatives in Congress combined with two senators. Congressional representation is loosely based on population and changes every 10 years with a new census.

Texas still ranks among the states with the most voters per electoral vote despite gaining four seats in Congress after the 2010 census because of high population growth.

The Electoral College helped Trump win the election with narrow wins in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania while Hillary Clinton ran up the score in California and New York to win the popular vote.

As of Monday morning, Clinton has 766,920 more votes than Trump across the country, with some absentee ballots still to be tallied in Clinton-leaning states like California, New York and Washington.

That translates to a 0.3 percentage point lead for Clinton nationally over Trump.

It was the second time since 2000 where the popular vote winner lost the Electoral College. Al Gore lost to George W. Bush despite 543,895 more votes across the country.

A petition with more than 2 million signatures is calling on members of the Electoral College to ignore their states’ votes and side with Clinton due to her popular vote win.

This story was originally published November 14, 2016 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Your vote in Texas isn’t worth as much as some other states."