<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>majormajor</author><text>Why do you believe &amp;quot;population centers directing the country&amp;quot; is a bigger problem than &amp;quot;arbitrary historical boundaries directing the country?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;If you replace the euphemism &amp;quot;population centers&amp;quot; with the word &amp;quot;people&amp;quot; you get &amp;quot;the problem of people directing the country&amp;quot;... which doesn&amp;#x27;t sound like a problem to me compared to the minority direction we have today.</text><parent_chain><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>Yes that is how it should be.  Each state has different interests.  By having electoral votes based on population we are not avoiding the problem of population centers directing the country.&lt;p&gt;How is electing a president different than votes for a constitutional amendment?  Each state gets one vote there.</text></item><item><author>maxerickson</author><text>So take a step back. Why would (the people of&amp;#x2F;in) California and Texas and so on choose to support such a republic?&lt;p&gt;As it is you&amp;#x27;ve defined a circle. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s a republic so it should be run based just on the borders of the constituents&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>Because they are all states that should have an equal say in what president is elected.  A republic of states is beholden to the states.  Each state is beholden to its population.</text></item><item><author>maxerickson</author><text>That would be less democratic (small d) than the current system.&lt;p&gt;Do you have some reason that Wyoming should actually have an equal say with New York or Texas or Florida or California?</text></item><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>I have been thinking that maybe states should get an equal number of electoral votes.  We would get the protection of the electoral college and every state would have an equal say.</text></item><item><author>Glyptodon</author><text>Always keep in mind that however distorted the electoral college is, that distortion is tremendously magnified by the cap on the size of the US house of Representatives and the fact that the Constitution specifies a lower bound for district population but no upper bound.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Looking for Voter Fraud (In Old Elections) with Data Visualization</title><url>https://probablydance.com/2020/11/08/looking-for-voter-fraud-in-old-elections-with-data-visualization/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>maxerickson</author><text>Well, for one thing, the foundational document that the states used to establish the union has different rules for electing president than for modifying the union.&lt;p&gt;You aren&amp;#x27;t arguing that part of it, the part where people (likely) wouldn&amp;#x27;t put up with the system you propose.</text><parent_chain><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>Yes that is how it should be.  Each state has different interests.  By having electoral votes based on population we are not avoiding the problem of population centers directing the country.&lt;p&gt;How is electing a president different than votes for a constitutional amendment?  Each state gets one vote there.</text></item><item><author>maxerickson</author><text>So take a step back. Why would (the people of&amp;#x2F;in) California and Texas and so on choose to support such a republic?&lt;p&gt;As it is you&amp;#x27;ve defined a circle. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s a republic so it should be run based just on the borders of the constituents&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>Because they are all states that should have an equal say in what president is elected.  A republic of states is beholden to the states.  Each state is beholden to its population.</text></item><item><author>maxerickson</author><text>That would be less democratic (small d) than the current system.&lt;p&gt;Do you have some reason that Wyoming should actually have an equal say with New York or Texas or Florida or California?</text></item><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>I have been thinking that maybe states should get an equal number of electoral votes.  We would get the protection of the electoral college and every state would have an equal say.</text></item><item><author>Glyptodon</author><text>Always keep in mind that however distorted the electoral college is, that distortion is tremendously magnified by the cap on the size of the US house of Representatives and the fact that the Constitution specifies a lower bound for district population but no upper bound.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Looking for Voter Fraud (In Old Elections) with Data Visualization</title><url>https://probablydance.com/2020/11/08/looking-for-voter-fraud-in-old-elections-with-data-visualization/</url></story>