[Dalewyn]

It is.

The 538 Electors are derived from the 435 Representatives and 100 Senators in Congress, with an additional 1 Representative and 2 Senators equivalents in Electors allocated to the District of Columbia (specifically the same count as the least populous State in the Union, currently Rhode Island with 1 Representative and 2 Senators).

That means of the 538 Electors, 436 of them are allocated according to State population counts as recorded in the United States Census taken every 10 years.

[hacknews6]

And the outcomes are frequently undemocratic. Only in America is it fair for the smaller number to be bigger than the bigger number, which just so happens to conveniently benefit the minority, who then twist themselves into knots to "well, akshually" us all to death.

[benmmurphy]

In Australia the seats in the upper house of Parliament are strictly divided between the States with each receiving 12 seats regardless of their relative populations (two territories which are not proper states also receive 2 seats each). I suspect some other countries may have a similar federal model where there is some kind of barrier to stop larger states from being predatory towards smaller states. If you check wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism) you can see some other countries like Argentina have a similar model to Australia. I think in Australia there was probably similar historical reasons for the Senate as the Electoral College in the USA. The colonies in Australia were self-governing and then decided to create a central government and the Senate was a way to give the smaller colonies confidence they wouldn't be taken advantage of in the future.