Electoral College Reform
January 16, 2019 at 5:32 p.m.
By -
On May 5 of this past year the Connecticut State Legislature voted to pledge its electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote in upcoming presidential elections even if a majority of voters of that state cast votes for an opposing candidate. The reason for this change is to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which according to the USA Today article from May 7, 2018, would "guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes" by having states pledge all the electoral votes to the candidate who gets the highest vote total nationally.”
(www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/07/connecticut-links-electoral-college-popular-vote/587561002/).
Besides Connecticut, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C., have joined the compact. This compact would take "effect if states with 98 more electoral votes enact the legislation. At that point, the members would represent a majority of the Electoral College and possess the 270 votes needed to elect the president,” according to the USA Today article. For this threshold to be reached "the most contested states – which are the ones that benefit most from the current system – or some red states will have to join the compact.” Whether or not this compact is constitutional remains to be seen.
There is a better alternative which keeps this important institution intact to the benefit of all states and their residents while addressing several issues with the current the-winner-take-all system. That alternative is incorporating the nationwide vote into the Electoral College as proportional electoral votes while also maintaining the state system of electoral votes in a dual system which would expand into a four-layer system. The dual-layer system has been shown in previous letters to the editor from the recent 2016 election back to the 1964 election. Results for this system all the way back to 1900 are also available. The four-layer system which will be explained in a soon-to-follow letter is the Expanded Electoral College.
The first step toward this Expanded Electoral College is to apply the following requirement: A winning candidate in a presidential election should be required to get both a simple majority of the Electoral College and the nationwide popular vote along with winning a plurality of the states. This would ensure that all states and their residents, whether red or blue state or urban or rural or large population or low population, have their say and influence on the final result. This first step can be easily implemented before 2020 if our nation so chooses. So please contact your U.S. senator and U.S. representative and urge them to pass this amendment.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
On May 5 of this past year the Connecticut State Legislature voted to pledge its electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote in upcoming presidential elections even if a majority of voters of that state cast votes for an opposing candidate. The reason for this change is to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which according to the USA Today article from May 7, 2018, would "guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes" by having states pledge all the electoral votes to the candidate who gets the highest vote total nationally.”
(www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/07/connecticut-links-electoral-college-popular-vote/587561002/).
Besides Connecticut, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Washington, D.C., have joined the compact. This compact would take "effect if states with 98 more electoral votes enact the legislation. At that point, the members would represent a majority of the Electoral College and possess the 270 votes needed to elect the president,” according to the USA Today article. For this threshold to be reached "the most contested states – which are the ones that benefit most from the current system – or some red states will have to join the compact.” Whether or not this compact is constitutional remains to be seen.
There is a better alternative which keeps this important institution intact to the benefit of all states and their residents while addressing several issues with the current the-winner-take-all system. That alternative is incorporating the nationwide vote into the Electoral College as proportional electoral votes while also maintaining the state system of electoral votes in a dual system which would expand into a four-layer system. The dual-layer system has been shown in previous letters to the editor from the recent 2016 election back to the 1964 election. Results for this system all the way back to 1900 are also available. The four-layer system which will be explained in a soon-to-follow letter is the Expanded Electoral College.
The first step toward this Expanded Electoral College is to apply the following requirement: A winning candidate in a presidential election should be required to get both a simple majority of the Electoral College and the nationwide popular vote along with winning a plurality of the states. This would ensure that all states and their residents, whether red or blue state or urban or rural or large population or low population, have their say and influence on the final result. This first step can be easily implemented before 2020 if our nation so chooses. So please contact your U.S. senator and U.S. representative and urge them to pass this amendment.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
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