Electoral Votes For States
March 12, 2020 at 9:09 p.m.
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In my Jan. 29 letter to the editor, I?listed several key steps for laying the groundwork to an expanded electoral college and ow a presidential candidate would be seated in the Oval Office. There is an additional and final step for that expansion that will be listed below that was not included in that letter. But first, some of those previous steps from that letter were the following:
• Raising the winning threshold for the electoral college from 270 to 274 and requiring to win atleast half the states in the Union and a plurality of the nationwide popular vote in order to win.
The above step and the first one in the process would create a universal standard that would be acceptable to all members of the voting public, whether Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Reform, Independent or other. It would also have the additional benefit of keeping radical or unqualified candidates of all stripes limited to the margins where they belong.
• A second set of electoral votes should be based on what percentage of the popular vote a candidate won nationwide and proportionally divided according to that percentage. There would also be a bloc of bonus electoral votes totaling 102 votes for whichever candidate received a plurality or simple majority of the popular vote in addition to the proportional votes.
The step above would ensure that all candidates whether major party or serious third party or independents receive electoral votes based on their performance across that nation as a whole.
• An additional step would be allowing each state to receive two additional bonus electors on each state’s ability to pass constitutional amendments or call a constitutional convention under Article V of the Constitution.
The third step above would provide further incentive for candidates to campaign in every state across the Union.
The final step below is the giant leap forward in the expansion of the electoral college and turning each state into a competitive miniature electoral college that is part of a greater whole.
• Each state’s electoral college would eventually triple in size. For example, Indiana currently has 11 votes based on its congressional representation, would now have 33. But these votes would be allocated by three different methods. There would still be 11 winner-take-all electoral votes that would be allocated proportionally based on a candidate percentage of the popular vote in the state. The last set of 11 votes would be based on the congressional district method currently used in Nebraska and Maine. This makes each state competitive for candidates since they are guaranteed to walk away with something out of the three different categories.
When all of these measures are combined, they ensure that every corner of the country counts on election night and eliminates the notion of fly-over country.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
In my Jan. 29 letter to the editor, I?listed several key steps for laying the groundwork to an expanded electoral college and ow a presidential candidate would be seated in the Oval Office. There is an additional and final step for that expansion that will be listed below that was not included in that letter. But first, some of those previous steps from that letter were the following:
• Raising the winning threshold for the electoral college from 270 to 274 and requiring to win atleast half the states in the Union and a plurality of the nationwide popular vote in order to win.
The above step and the first one in the process would create a universal standard that would be acceptable to all members of the voting public, whether Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Reform, Independent or other. It would also have the additional benefit of keeping radical or unqualified candidates of all stripes limited to the margins where they belong.
• A second set of electoral votes should be based on what percentage of the popular vote a candidate won nationwide and proportionally divided according to that percentage. There would also be a bloc of bonus electoral votes totaling 102 votes for whichever candidate received a plurality or simple majority of the popular vote in addition to the proportional votes.
The step above would ensure that all candidates whether major party or serious third party or independents receive electoral votes based on their performance across that nation as a whole.
• An additional step would be allowing each state to receive two additional bonus electors on each state’s ability to pass constitutional amendments or call a constitutional convention under Article V of the Constitution.
The third step above would provide further incentive for candidates to campaign in every state across the Union.
The final step below is the giant leap forward in the expansion of the electoral college and turning each state into a competitive miniature electoral college that is part of a greater whole.
• Each state’s electoral college would eventually triple in size. For example, Indiana currently has 11 votes based on its congressional representation, would now have 33. But these votes would be allocated by three different methods. There would still be 11 winner-take-all electoral votes that would be allocated proportionally based on a candidate percentage of the popular vote in the state. The last set of 11 votes would be based on the congressional district method currently used in Nebraska and Maine. This makes each state competitive for candidates since they are guaranteed to walk away with something out of the three different categories.
When all of these measures are combined, they ensure that every corner of the country counts on election night and eliminates the notion of fly-over country.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
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