In his October 6 opinion piece titled “Referendum on presidential voting is a Hobson’s Choice” David Goldfischer advocated for a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College in order to replace it with a national popular vote. I wish him luck. Over the history of our country, there have been at least 700 proposed amendments to modify or abolish the Electoral College — more than any other subject of constitutional reform. In today’s polarized society successfully amending the Constitution seems more unlikely than ever.
The good news is the U.S. Constitution allows us to achieve the same beneficial result (namely that the candidate with the most votes for president should win the White House and that every vote should count equally) without a constitutional amendment. During the past legislative session, Colorado joined with 15 other states and the District of Columbia to pass the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and added Colorado’s nine Electoral College votes to the 270 needed to make a national popular vote for the presidency a reality. To date, these 15 states and D.C. have pledged their respective 196 Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who earns the highest national popular vote in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The national popular vote compact does not “get rid of” the Electoral College, nor is it a “work around.” It is a constitutionally allowed, state-based solution that works within the exact language of Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution to eliminate the worst side effects of the winner-take-all system of allocating electors that is currently used by 48 states and the District of Columbia. Those harmful side effects include the fact that five of 45 U.S. presidents have not won a popular vote mandate of the American people and the artificial elevation of a select few battleground states while ignoring the rest of the country.
Let me elaborate on why the focus on battleground states is so detrimental to our democratic republic. In the 2016 election, 94% of all post-convention campaign events (and spending) were held in just 12 states. In the 2012 election that number was 100%. Most pundits forecast that the 2020 presidential race will focus entirely on just four to seven battleground states. The rest of the country, most likely including Colorado, simply doesn’t matter because they are reliably Republican or Democratic states.
What is the “so what” of this? The simple answer is that in a healthy democracy every vote should matter, and matter equally. Instead, we have votes in Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania that matter a lot more than votes in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming and California. This has a direct effect on policy and money that is distributed by the executive branch of the Federal Government. For example, battleground states receive 7% more presidentially controlled grants, twice as many disaster declarations, considerably more Superfund and No Child Left Behind exemptions, and advantageous trade protection.
The Colorado General Assembly and Gov. Jared Polis got it right when they passed the National Popular Vote bill. We should be a battleground country, where every American’s vote for president matters, and matters equally, regardless of their address.
Sylvia Bernstein lives in Boulder and is the outreach director for the Yes on National Popular Vote issue committee in Colorado.
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