Nebraska May Restore "Winner-Take-All" Electoral College Voting

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Nebraska and Maine are the only states that let the voters of each U.S. House district choose their own presidential elector. In 2008, one of Nebraska’s U.S. House districts chose a Democratic elector, so the electoral college vote in 2008 for Nebraska was split between Barack Obama (who got one vote) and John McCain (who got two electors from each of the other two districts, plus the two at-large electors).

This newspaper story predicts that the Nebraska legislature may abolish that system, and make the state winner-take-all. The Nebraska legislature convenes on January 5 and there is no such bill yet. A similar bill was introduced in 2009, but it didn’t pass. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link. Although Nebraska’s legislature is elected on a non-partisan basis, a large majority of the state legislators are registered Republicans.

North Carolina Ballot Access Bill Ready for Introduction

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Newly-elected North Carolina State Representative Stephen LaRoque (R-Kinston) is ready to introduce a ballot access reform bill, as soon as the legislature convenes on January 26. It would lower the number of signatures for a newly-qualifying party from 2% of the last gubernatorial vote (now 85,379 signatures) to exactly 10,000 signatures. It would lower the number of signatures for a statewide independent candidate from that same 2%, to exactly 5,000 signatures. It would lower the number for U.S. House candidates to 1,000 (the current requirement for independent candidates for U.S. House is now 4% of the number of registered voters, which is over 15,000 signatures).

Free the Vote, a North Carolina organization that works on election law issues, has this press release about the bill. The press release has a link to the text of the bill, which has already been prepared by employees of the legislature. LaRoque has been interested in election law for some time. He is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that was filed by residents of Kinston, who are trying to implement the popular vote in that city to convert city elections from partisan elections to non-partisan elections. The U.S. Justice Department refused to let that measure be implemented. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to let the city convert itself to non-partisan elections is an independent voter who wants to be a candidate for city office, and who complains that under the partisan structure, an independent candidate has a very difficult time getting on the ballot. If the LaRoque ballot access bill were to pass, that would ameliorate that particular plaintiff’s complaint.

Institute for Public Policy Research Issues Analysis of Winner-Take-All Elections

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The Institute for Public Policy Research was formed in Great Britain in 1988, and now has a presence in 25 nations. On January 4, 2011, it issued a 24-page report, “Worst of Both Worlds: Why First Past the Post No Longer Works.” The study finds that British parliamentary elections, which use the same winner-take-all system that the United States uses for federal and state elections, are deeply flawed.

It says, “The strongest case in favor of First Past the Post is that it delivers single-party majority government; however, there is good reason to believe that this will be more difficult to achieve in the future because of long-term trends in voting patterns across the United Kingdom. The two principal forces undermining FPTP’s ability to produce single-party government are: (1) The declining share of the vote for Labour and the Conservative parties; and the rise in support for third parties; (2) The changing electoral geography of the UK.” The study can be read at this link.

Much of what the report says about Britain is true for the United States as well. The report emphasizes that only a small number of House of Commons districts are “swing districts”, and documents the extent to which campaigns by the major parties are focused much more on those districts, than on “safe” districts. That generalization certainly describes presidential elections in the United States, where voters in swing states get far more attention than voters in safe states. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.