How Much Does a Vote Count?

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.