plan of action - april 3, 2017

Electoral College Reform

Reforming the Electoral College requires a constitutional amendment, right? Wrong! Washington Monthly recently ran an article describing a path around the discouraging, uphill slog of getting an amendment passed - a way forward that looks like it might succeed. You can read the article yourself, but we’ll attempt to summarize ...

Today’s action:

1. Read and get a handle on this information, and tomorrow’s action will be to follow up.

• It’s possible for a candidate to win the Electoral College but lose the popular vote.
• There is no point in candidates campaigning in states which are highly likely to go to one party or the other - no point in garnering, say, a few hundred thousand more Republican votes in a state which is almost certain to go to a Democrat, especially as all but Nebraska and Maine are winner-take-all states.
• This leads candidates to all but ignore any but the swing states, sweeping aside the opinions, concerns, and values of the rest of the nation’s voters. After the 2016 conventions, the two principal candidates favored the six most contested states with two-thirds of their visits, and the 12 most contested states with 94% of their visits.
• This favor continues throughout the presidential term, with battleground states receiving 7% more federal grant money than other states.
• In order for a candidate to be elected president, he or she needs 270 EC votes.
• Any state is free to allocate its EC votes however it wishes.
• WHAT IF some states passed legislation that required all their EC votes to go to the winner of the national popular vote? To prevent one lone state from being the “tipping point,” the legislation doesn’t kick in unless and until enough states sign on whose total EC votes add up to 270, the magic number to elect the president.
• This legislation is called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. So far 165 electoral votes have been pledged, with another 96 votes already passed one of their state legislative bodies. Only a handful of others are needed.

2. All Week:  Call this number to be put through to your Senators to oppose Gorsuch: 1-888-877-2040.