Aristotle said that justice or fairness really comes in two forms. There is arithmetic justice, which means giving every person the same, equal amount. And then there is geometric or proportional justice, which means giving everyone the amount in proportion to what they need or deserve.

For example, think about serving food in the lunch cafeteria. Both first graders and eighth need to eat lunch. But how much food should they get?

The principle of arithmetic justice would say that every student should get the same amount of food. The principle of geometric justice would say that students have different needs, and they should get food in proportion to their needs. This means that larger, older students should get larger lunch portions than do the smaller, younger students.

The arithmetic principle of justice says everyone receives the same.

The geometric principle of justice says everyone receives a proportional amount.

The Electoral College attempts to combine the two principles of justice. The USA is divided into 50 states plus the District of Columbia. At the constitutional convention, delegates debated how to distribute power across the states. Some people favored an arithmetic principle of justice. They argued that each state should receive the same number of votes, regardless of the population of that state. Other people favored the geometric principle of justice. They argued that the large states should receive more votes than the small states.

The advocates of the geometric principle said it was unfair to give small states the same amount of power as the large states. After all, states with more people should get more of a say. But advocates for the arithmetic principle said that giving large states more power would lead them to bully and dominate the small states.

The Electoral College represents a compromise between these two arguments. Every state is given some representation (a minimum of 3 electoral votes), but large states are given more. This means that small states get more power than they would on a strictly proportional basis, but larger states still get more power.