Burt asks “But how was it decided that those two improbable states would be given so much importance?”
Then answers his own question with “In the general election, those two states will account for a total of 11 electoral votes.”
In other words, it’s cheap to campaign. If you have a campaign budget of $12.95 then you can talk to each resident of both states 173 times. If your message doesn’t “resonate” with the voters after that much face time then you don’t have a resonating message.
The system has three additional advantages:
- The states are small enough that the goofball candidates can’t really damage the parties because nobody in the other 48 states pays any attention to anything but the result.
- The small states provide an additional benefit as the winning candidates get to try different approaches and fine-tune their message before any real public scrutiny occurs. Again, nobody in the other 48 states pays any attention to anything but the result.
- The system discourages 3rd party candidates because visiting each potential voter 173 times takes a lot of organization. 3rd party candidates may appear later but showing up 8 months after everybody else just guarantees a loss (see Thompson, Fred).
