Proposed Colorado constitutional amendment to change EV to popular vote

[JohnLocke]

Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution says that:
"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress."
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In other words, a state may choose its electors any way it wants to. Most states hold an election and the candidate with the most votes gets all the electors. In Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each congressional district gets one elector and the winner of the state as a whole gets two more. But the state legislature is free to just skip the election altogether to save the taxpayers money and just appoint the electors directly. The Colorado state legislature did precisely this in the bitterly contested election of 1876, in which the Democrat, Samuel Tilden won the popular vote over the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. (...)

With this rather lengthy introduction, we get to today's news. A group of Colorado citizens have proposed a change to the state's constitution specifying that Colorado's nine electors be apportioned strictly in proportion to the popular vote. Currently Bush is ahead 48% to 43% there, so under the proposed system, Bush would get five electoral votes and Kerry four electoral votes, instead of nine to zero. The group has turned in petitions containing 130,000 signatures. If about 68,000 of these prove to be valid, the question will be a ballot referendum in November. If it passes, the change takes effect for this year's election. If it makes the ballot, on the evening of Nov. 2, the TV news anchors will probably be saying: "President Bush won Colorado with 55% of the vote, but we don't know how many votes he will get in the electoral college until they finish recounting the closely fought referendum on changing the Colorado state constitution." Whoever loses will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which once again may have to rule on the sensitive issue of state's rights.
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http://www.electoral-vote.com/aug/aug01.html
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/election/article/0,1299,DRMN_36_3077685,00.html

[eleny]

1. I signed that petition at the grocery store the other day

....and I was very careful to fill out my info.

[Big Al from WI]

2. This is horrible timing

and hopefully it will fail. As many others have said, if CA and NY did this, it would be horrible for the Democrats. Best case scenario: Almost all Republicans vote against this proposal, but some are turned off by Bush and vote for Kerry. Then Kerry gets all 9 of Colorado's votes.

[Dying Eagle]

3. Welcome to DU

Big Al. From a fellow Chessehead!!

:hug:

[quaoar]

4. There are already two states

That can potentially split their electoral votes: Maine and Nebraska.

[JohnLocke]

8. It's different here.

Maine and Nebraska split their electoral votes by congressional district. In Colorado, if this thing passes, it'll go by proportional popular vote.

[rhite5]

5. not a perfect solution, but a step closer to democracy.

if the ballot measure passes, there won't really be any reason for the losing presidential candidate to take his case to the Supreme Court. If there is some evidence of fraud they would ask for recounts. If still not satisfied, they would probably go to the state legislature or go to a state Supreme Court.

Or are you saying they will make a court challenge of the legality of the ballot measure itself? If the measure got on the ballot in the first place, I believe that means it has passed the judicial approvals.

[Endangered Specie]

6. I posted this in GD, I hope it passes

[tedoll78]

7. If it passes..

that's another 4 electoral votes that Kerry would be all-but-guaranteed.

My main aesthetic question would be.. how to color my map? I could just color Colorado all red and give Kerry a 4-electoral vote state from Bush's column (umm.. Idaho?). Or maybe I could color proportionally.. hehe..

[beyurslf]

9. This is only a good idea if every state does it.

What if states like CA and NY (or other strong Dem states) do this? If every state did it, though, it would make every vote really count.