The Presidential Election Reform Act of 2008 is dead, and good riddance. I don’t support any effort to change the Electoral College and the way Electors are chosen, even if it gives my side an advantage.
Every "Blue" State has a valid complaint – urban areas control Statewide elections. Whether you are in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania or California, the electoral maps are a swath of red with blue coloring around the big cities. So those of us that live in the rural or inland areas get sick of big cities determining our Electoral votes. Oh well, I guess we need to work a little harder, take our case to the big cities, and look at all the benefits we dole out to residents of big cities. Oh wait, I forgot, we had a Congressional majority for 12 years with the Presidency for 6 years at the same time and ………. we just tried to buy big city votes too – without success.
Leave the Electoral College alone. Opening it up to tinkering will lead to DEMOCRAT tinkering in the future and NOTHING good can can from that.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I entirely agree that allocating electors from congressional districts will lead to Democrat tinkering where instead of 22 electors we will only get like 14-16 in the next reapportionment for the 2012 election.
Outreach and improving the California business climate where Republican voters would move back to our state will be the most prudent solution.
October 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am
I disagree. I think it is nonsense that 100% of a state’s electoral votes go to a candidate that may have only garnered 50% +1 of the voters in that state.
I agree with the “Maine Method.” It is more reflective of the voters of any given state and more importantly it will do more to encourage Presidential Candidates to spend time in every state, rather than to disregard “red” or “blue” states as is the current trend.
Is there anyone who believes that, regardless of who the candidate is, the Republican Nominee will spend much time in California after our Primary? Well, ok he will be here every once in a while to extract some cash from the ATM.
The argument that “Democrats will tinker with it” could be used against every good proposal, like tax reform, tort reform, and the list goes on.
The key to making the Maine proposal workable, would be to get blue states and red states to go along with it at the same time. If that were the case, this proposal could grow some legs.