How Much Does a Vote Count?

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In the mood to argue about the Electoral College? Who isn't! Well, Caltech Professor Jonathan Katz (not the New Media enthusiast) has written two research papers you might want to read: Empirically Evaluating the Electoral College, and How Much Does a Vote Count? Voting Power, Coalitions, and the Electoral College. Excerpt from the summary of the latter:

Finally, we estimate the average probability of decisiveness for all U.S. Presidential elections from 1960 to 2000 under three possible electoral systems: popular vote, electoral vote, and winner-take-all within Congressional districts. We find that the average probability of decisiveness is about the same under all three systems.