text: Yes true.  California has an estimated population of 39 million and Hawaii has an estimated population of 1.43 million.  This means California has about 27 times the population of Hawaii but only 13 times the number of electoral votes.  Hence Hawaii, like the dakotas, Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska has a disproportionate say in the outcome of the presidential election.  Add that to the fact that, in all states except Maine, voters for anyone other than the most popular candidate in that state get no electoral votes regardless of how close to a majority they come and you have scenarios like this election where one candidate wins the popular vote by more than 1.5 million votes but looses the presidency to the other candidate.