Research released by WalletHub in late October ranked much weight a single vote carries in each state as the 2022 midterms approach.
To figure out which states had the most and least influential voters, WalletHub used several key metrics in its study: Senate elections, House elections, gubernatorial elections and the projected voting-age populations in each state.
“Take California, for instance. Its estimated population is over 68 times greater than Wyoming’s, yet each state has two seats in the Senate,” WalletHub explained. “In this case, less is more: California’s votes are weakened exponentially because each of its senators must represent tens of millions more residents.”
“However,” the report continued, “the House of Representatives apportions its seats by population, so California has 53 while Wyoming has just one. When it comes to presidential elections, too, California has 55 electoral votes while Wyoming has three. Even in all these cases, though, an individual Wyoming voter still has a bit more influence than a California voter.”
The study found, overall, that red states (defined as states that former President Donald Trump won in 2020) have more powerful voters than blue states (those won by President Biden).
Polling suggests that the Republican Party will flip at least four governorships in the upcoming midterm elections: Oregon, Nevada, Wisconsin and Kansas are all up for grabs. (RELATED: Twitter Announces How They’re Policing Content Ahead Of Midterms)
Other polling data show that a majority of Americans blame “woke politicians” for the nation’s crime spike, concurring with data that show a historic increase in homicide rates in Democrat-run cities in the last two years.