See this story, which reports that Al Gore now supports the National Popular Vote Plan bill. The article quotes Gore as saying that even after the 2000 presidential election was decided, he still supported the existing system. But, having thought about it and noticed that voters in most states feel their vote doesn’t really help determine the outcome, he has changed his mind.
Welcome to the reality of so many votes not counting.
Given how long it took you to get here, it’s safe to say voters were never your first concern. Just now, he’s comtemplating voters.
From the article:
“Marc Hetherington, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University, said the system is unlikely to change because smaller states benefit from it, and there are more small states than big states. He said those states would be ignored by the campaigns under a straight popular vote count.”
I wonder anyone who supports this contention can produce a count of the number of times that the following, arguably “small” states have been visited by a presidential candidate of either major party during the general campaigns of, oh, let’s say the past seven presidential elections…?
HI, AK, ID, MT, UT, WY, ND, SD, KS, OK, NB, AL, MS, SC, WV, DE, MD, RI, VT, ME…
Jim?
And let’s not worry too much about small states getting their fair share of representation in our government. Every time cloture is invoked in the US Senate, many of those those states exercise more than enough disproportionate power.
How about you, Jim Riley?
My guess is that
My preference would be for states to allocate their electoral votes based on the results of a Presidential vote in a US House district. That way Presidential nominees would not give up in a solid blue or solid red because they could strive to win some electoral votes. Hence, in California instead of the D nominee being a lock for 52 electoral votes, he would probably win 38, based on him/her winning the presidential vote in 38 of the 52 US House Districts..
#3 – See this critical look at the congressional district system based on several ways of evaluating fairness:
http://www.fairvote.org/fuzzy-math-wrong-way-reforms-for-allocating-electoral-college-votes
When electing one person, the best proportion is one person, one vote — voters in all states treated equally. As #2 say, Hetherington is absurdly wrong in suggesting small states are helped in any way by this system — or won’t support reform, as several already back the National Popular Vote plan.
3 –
And then, because of accurate and modern polling techniques, you will have both major parties focusing on winning a majority of perhaps 40 to 50 CD’s that are “in play,” and all the attendant electoral fraud that we saw in Ohio in 2004 and Floridan in 2000.
No thanks…
#2 New Brunswick is not a State, even if you believe there are 57, Barry.
Would candidates choose running mates from States like Wyoming, Alaska, and Delaware if they were trying to win a national popularity contest?
#4 Voters in all States would have to be able to to choose from among the same candidates to be treated equally.
4 –
Rob…you get the argument in 6, right? The NPV compact would be unconstitutional because it would violate the 14th amendment. As with most of the arguments that Jimbo posits against NPV, there is an implication that somehow the EC as currently implemented protects us from whatever NPV supposedly threatens. Like, voters are currently treated “equally” under the EC, which is crap, of course. Or that there will be recounts under NPV…as if we’ve never had recounts under the current implementation of EC. Or, stretching the lies to Paul Ryan dimensions, NPV will require “nationwide” recounts…also crap.
6 –
Jimbo, you magnificent Republican tool, instead of proofreading me for typos, how about for once you answer the question asked? I know you’re not stupid enough to believe that the dimwit you nominated for president in 2008 thought he needed help winning the 3 EC votes from Alaska, or that the dimwit you nominated in 2000 and 2004 had an EC “flank” to protect in Wyoming.
So let’s make it easier for you, using your examples – how many times did McCain visit Alaska in 2008 during the general campaign? How many times did Bush visit Wyoming in 2000 or 2004 during the general campaign? How many times did Obama visit Delaware in 2008 during the general campaign?
Here…I’ll help. Here’s how you do it…put a paper clip on your desk. Pick it up with the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Then hold your right hand out in front of your nose and drop the paper clip, keeping your thumb and forefinger pressed firmly together.
Now…count!
(BTW…McCain almost had it right. If he’d only managed to convince Sarah to make a campaign promise to flash her tits at the inauguration ceremony, he’d be running for reelection right now.)