One of the two Colorado Republicans running for Governor this year was eliminated from the primary because his petition was ruled insufficient. Marc Holtzman, former president of the University of Colorado, needed 10,500 valid signatures to get on the Republican primary ballot, since he didn’t get as much as 30% support at the state convention. The law requires 1,500 signatures from each of the seven U.S. House districts. Holtzman submitted 20,000 signatures, but he lacked as many as 1,500 in the First and Seventh districts. However, there are 4,200 signatures on his petition that are from unknown districts. Holtzman may contest the Secretary of State’s ruling.
HOW I FLUNKED OUT OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
I am one of those Viet Nam era political types whom was not allowed to vote at age 18. I was painfully aware that I
could end up as the ‘last American boy to die in an Asian war’! I did not flee to Canada or Sweden. Instead, I
enrolled in ROTC and ended up a hundred feet under ground near a huge missile with a large bomb pointed at the
other side of the planet.
Thus college played a big part of my early adult life. Until the Department of Defense changed their mind about me
struggling over my Engineering studies for more than four years (I believe they call that ‘Lying’!) I trudged
through trig and calculus at one campus, and then transferred to a non technical degree at another. When I first
voted (after turning 21) I was forced to enroll in a second college that I hated: the Electoral College!
Even as an Elementary School student, the unfairness of political hacks using my franchise to rig a nationwide
election seemed obvious! This is especially serious with a winner take all state in a close election. It is down right
criminal if that state, like Texas or Illinois in 1960, may have had organized voting fraud.
How does a concerned citizen fix the double whammy of some citizens in territories or ex patriots in other
countries not being able to vote for President and others in winner take all states having their opinion over
shadowed by the ‘terrany of the majority’?
Once upon a time I would have said that the formality of an official Constitutional Amendment was the way to go.
You know, like the ‘successful’ ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) effort of the 1970s. Now, like the fight against
the Unconstitutional Supreme Court decision on Eminent Domain, I think the more local approach is the better.
We live in a good country. Is it the greatest country on the planet? Well we talk about logic and science, yet we use
the non metric ‘British’ measuring system! We were born in rebellion, yet it is obvious that we are a greedy,
grubbing global 21st Century Imperial Empire! We talk ecology, yet we are more the problem than the solution!
We talk about democracy, yet we are one of the few non parliamentary governments —and do not even directly
elect our more powerful official!
I say we join the folks at http://www.fairvote.com (including 1980 anti Duopoly standard bearer John B. Anderson) in
getting states to individually agree to give all of their electoral votes to the person gathering the most total
individual ballots! Let’s kill my least favorite campus, the Electoral College, one state at a time!
Besides, they have a lousy track team and their foot ball squad hasn’t won a conference in years!
Innovative Plan to Win Popular Election of the President Launched
Press conference for National Popular VoteOn February 23, (2006?) FairVote’s chairman John B. Anderson joined Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN), Rep.
John Buchanan (R-AL) and other supporters of an important new campaign to elect the president by a national popular vote. Anderson ran on the
ballot in all fifty states in 1980 as the National Unity Party ticket.
National Popular Vote, backed by FairVote, Common Cause and a bipartisan group of former Members of Congress, presented at the National Press
Club an innovative plan for states representing a majority of Americans to join together in an agreement to collectively award their electoral votes to
the winner of the national popular vote. States have exclusive power over how to allocate electors. FairVote also released an impressive,
ground-breaking new report:Presidential Elections Inequality. Copies are available online and for purchase on http://www.fairvote.com.