I don't think some hayseed in Wyoming or South Dakota's vote should count more than forty times a California vote. And I'd bet the vaunted founders would not have thought so either. The "equal representation of the States" idea made some sense before the Civil War when it was decided emphatically that federal law trumps state law. The States, as originally envisioned and again, owing to the fact that the slave holding states had to be induced to sign on to the Constitution, were "more sovereign" during the period. Further, the distribution of the population was not nearly as skewed in 1790 as it is today where roughly one in eight Americans is a Californian. According to the 1790 census, the largest populations of free white men (the only eligible voters at the time) were in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Each had approximately 111,000. The smallest population was Georgia where there were just over 13,000. So the voters from this smallest state's vote was worth less than ten times a vote from a voter in the largest, not close to "more than 40 times."
We should change the rules because we need to change the rules "in order to form a more perfect union" in the 21st century.
We should change the rules because we need to change the rules "in order to form a more perfect union" in the 21st century.