Movement to Render Electoral College Obsolete Gains Ground

Movement to Render Electoral College Obsolete Gains Ground
by Chris Bowers, Wed May 31, 2006 at 12:08:10 PM EST
This is exciting news:
Seeking to force presidential candidates to pay attention to California’s 15.5 million voters, state lawmakers on Tuesday jumped aboard a new effort that would award electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide.

As it is now, California grants its Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state. Practically speaking, that means Democrat-dominated California spends the fall presidential campaign on the sidelines as candidates focus on the states — mostly in the upper Midwest — that are truly up for grabs.

Under a bill passed by the Assembly, California would join an interstate compact in which states would agree to cast their electoral votes not for the winner in their jurisdictions but for the winner nationwide. Proponents say that would force candidates to broaden their reach to major population centers such as California.

The bill is part of a 3-month-old movement driven by a Bay Area lawyer and a Stanford computer science professor. The same 888-word bill is pending in four other states and is expected to be introduced in every state by January, its sponsors say. The legislation would not take effect until enough states passed such laws to make up a majority of the Electoral College votes — a minimum of 13 states, depending on population.
I sincerely hope this passes in enough states to make the Electoral College useless. I grew up in a non-swing state (New York) and live in an extremely important swing state (Pennsylvania), and I can say for certain that the electoral college means that the votes of people who live in swing states are considered far more important in Presidential elections than those in non-swing states. Don’t get me wrong—I enjoyed living in a city where the top and bottom of both tickets would regularly visit, where canvassers would actually come to my door to talk with me about my vote, and where I knew my local activism would make a difference. However, that really should not be the case in just places like Philadelphia, while places like Upstate New York are left to rot. Both major parties should be forced to run fifty-state strategies where all voters across the country are considered equally important. The entire country should have an equal say in determining who becomes President, not just states that happen to be closely split between the two major coalitions. Considering that the number of swing states has reached an all-time record low, this bill is more important than ever in making sure that our potential Presidents consider everyone’s vote worth courting. http://mydd.com/