Failing Electoral College

The Electoral College is one of American democracy's most troubling eyesores--and it's getting worse. It gives voters unequal power based on where they live, can defeat the winner of the national popular vote and sidelines the majority of Americans, who live outside the dozen or so swing states. It also creates great opportunities for gaming the system--just ask California Republicans, who recently endorsed a proposed June 2008 ballot measure to divide California's slate of fifty-five electoral votes. They want the California winner--certain to be a Democrat next year--to take only two electoral votes, with the rest distributed according to who wins each Congressional district. If the measure is approved, Republicans would be guaranteed an Ohio-sized bloc of electors in a state they haven't won since 1988.

Democrats will spend millions to defeat this power grab. They have a strong case; allocating electoral votes by Congressional district is a misguided, undemocratic approach whether it's done state by state or nationally. In California, for example, only three Congressional districts were within an 8 percent margin in the presidential vote, hardly enough to draw candidates. On the national level, Congressional district allocation has a massive Republican bias due to Democratic votes being more concentrated in urban areas--in 2004, George W. Bush carried 59 percent of districts with 51 percent of the popular vote and in 2000 won 52 percent of districts while losing the popular vote to Al Gore.

Fortunately, we have the perfect vehicle for action: National Popular Vote (nationalpopularvote.com). Its founder, John Koza, refused to accept the conventional wisdom that nothing could be done for the landslide majority of voters who support electing Presidents by a national popular vote. His plan promises to make 2008 one of our last state-by-state elections for President.

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