image credit: www.forbes.com
Coming soon to a
state near you?
From Tara Ross at
The Daily Signal:
Opponents of the Electoral College achieved an important
victory last weekend when Connecticut’s legislature passed the so-called
National Popular Vote compact. Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is expected to
sign the measure.
Most Americans have never heard of the National Popular
Vote compact, but it is shockingly close to causing a major political and legal
firestorm. It is a clever scheme to change how we elect the president without
the bother of having to pass a constitutional amendment.
States that approve this legislation enter a simple
compact with one another. Each participating state agrees to allocate its
electors to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of how its own
citizens voted. The compact goes into effect when states holding 270 electoral
votes (enough to win the presidency) have agreed to the plan.
With Connecticut’s vote, 11 states and the District of
Columbia have now approved the measure, giving the compact a total of 172
electors. It needs only 98 more to reach the 270 mark.
The Constitution State has drifted far from its roots.
What would Founders such as Roger Sherman think? That Connecticut statesman was
an influential delegate at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The Great
Compromise—sometimes called the Connecticut Compromise— which gave Congress its
bicameral structure, might never have been brokered without him.
Moreover, Sherman was one of many delegates from small
states who refused to go along with the idea of a direct popular vote for the
presidency. He knew that little Connecticut would be outvoted time and time
again. The people at large, Sherman told the Convention, “will generally vote
for some man in their own state, and the largest state will have the best
chance for the appointment.”
His words reflected the sentiments of other small state
delegates.
. . .
Now imagine what Clinton—or any candidate—could do without
the restraints inherent in the Electoral College system.
If Clinton reaped a reward from those landslide victories
in Los Angeles and New York City, wouldn’t she have worked even harder to run
up her tallies there? Why would she make extra visits to Rust Belt states if
she could make up the votes with massive voter drives in the big cities?
With the Electoral College, the Democratic Party received
a firm reminder not to take those states for granted. Without the Electoral
College, such states — which make up vast swaths of the electorate — could
simply be ignored.
Read the rest of the
article (“Connecticut
Subverts the Electoral College, Rejecting Its Own History”) here.
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