Everything is Overrated

I was reading about the Guam Democratic Caucus (which is sort of like a primary, except everyone knows how you vote, people can pressure each other, and everyone’s vote is worth like 1000 times a primary voter’s) today, and couldn’t help but think about how absurd the world can be sometimes.

This picturesque US territory is surprisingly NOT the island from Lost. It’s actually Guam, which has somehow managed to escape my attention during my entire life. Until today. I did some math using the microsoft windows calculator program just to show how much power Guam actually has.

Guam has a population of approximately 150,000 people. Pennsylvania has about 12,500,000 people (approx. 83 times as many).

Pennsylvania has 158 pledged delegates, and 29 superdelegates. Guam has 4 pledged delegates, and 5 superdelegates.

Based on population, a person in Guam’s vote, measured by pledged delegates only, is worth approximately 2.1 Pennsylvania voters’ votes. Including superdelegates, a person in Guam’s vote is worth approximately 4 Pennsylvania votes.

Based on voter turnout (primaries vs. caucus, so not a very fair comparison)…turnout for Guam’s caucus is predicted to be about 2500 voters, while 2,300,000 voters voted in the PA primary. Measured by pledged delegates per voter,  each voter in Guam’s vote is worth .0016 pledged delegates. In PA, the relevant figure is .0000068 pledged delegates, meaning that one Guam caucus voter’s vote, by pledged delegates, is worth 235 primary votes in PA. Including superdelegates (not entirely unreasonable, since many follow the will of the voters or are pressured by it), the ratio is closer to 500 to 1.

Guam residents pay no taxes to the United States, receive major federal subsidies, and the US taxes paid by any non-Guam residents stationed in Guam is transferred from the US Treasury to Guam.

How Guam managed to get this kind of deal, I have no idea (I am too lazy to read a book or ask anybody), but I sure wish I could get in on it.

Kudos to you, Guam…you have cut an EXTREMELY UNDERRATED deal with the United States.