California’s electoral college votes. During a presidential election, each state is allotted a different number of votes to the electoral college depending on population. For example, California is allotted 55 votes (the most) while several states (including the District of Columbia) are allotted 3 votes each (the least). When a presidential candidate wins the popular vote in a state, the candidate wins all the electoral college votes in that state. To become president, a candidate must win 270 of the total of 538 votes in the electoral college. Chance (Winter 2010) demonstrated the impact of winning California on the presidential election. Assuming a candidate wins California’s 55 votes, the number of additional electoral college votes the candidate will win can be approximated by a normal distribution with m = 241.5 votes and s = 49.8 votes. If a presidential candidate wins the popular vote in California, what are the chances that he or she becomes the next U.S.

president?