[quote=harvey]Why do people say their vote doesn’t make a difference in CA?[/quote]

Because of the winner take all way the votes are counted. Keep in mind that in our system, the candidate who wins the state is awarded all the votes from that state. Thus, if you vote for candidate A, but candidate B carries California your vote goes to candidate B even though you checked candidate A on your ballot. (It’s a crazy system huh?)

In California and any other state that is heavily one party or the other the state is pretty much predecided to go for that party. Yes, technically there is always the possibility that voters could decide to not vote for their party’s nominee and vote for the other party’s nominee, but the reality is that never happens. People overwhelmingly vote for the nominee of the party they are registered to. There are very few swing voters, and they tend to cancel each other out.

[quote=harvey]If your vote doesn’t make a difference, then who’s vote does?[/quote]
The votes of people who live in states where the electorate is closely split. Their votes really do matter. In 2012 Obama won Florida by only 1%, a pretty small win. Here’s a list of the states that were close in 2012:

1. Florida: 0.6 percent (Obama 49.9, Romney 49.3.)

2. Ohio: 1.9 percent (Obama 50.1, Romney 48.2)

3. North Carolina: 2.2 percent (Romney 50.6, Obama 48.4)

4. Virginia (99% reporting): 3.0 percent (Obama 50.8, Romney 47.8)

5. Colorado: 4.7 percent (Obama 51.2, Romney 46.5)

6. Pennsylvania (99% reporting): 5.2 percent (Obama 52, Romney 46.8)

7. Iowa: 5.6 percent (Obama 52.1, Romney 46.5)

8. New Hampshire (99% reporting): 5.8 percent (Obama 52.2, Romney 46.4)

9. Nevada (99% reporting): 6.6 percent (Obama 52.3, Romney 45.7)

10. Wisconsin: 6.7 percent (Obama 52.8, Romney 46.1)

To follow the states that will be important this election I recommend the site fivethirtyeight.com. They are listing Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia as the most likely states to determine who wins.