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To: Walter Scott Hudson

I would support an amendment to allocate EVs by Congressional District (plus awarding the 2 senate seats by overall state winner) or by county.

Not the NPV though.


7 posted on 06/24/2011 8:08:37 AM PDT by RockinRight (Cain/Bachmann, Bachmann/Rubio, or, if you really want some fun, Cain/McCotter in 2012!)
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To: RockinRight

I agree. There is an initiative in California to do just that. If passed, I believe that we’d see at least 20 additional electoral votes for the Republican Candidates. Perhaps we would see more if the candidate fought for votes in OC, SD and inland parts of the state.

This could easily be the difference between a Republican in the White House and another four years of Obama.


38 posted on 06/24/2011 9:05:16 AM PDT by MS from the OC (Obama foreign policy"If you're an enemy we're sorry; if you're a friend, you're sorry" Abe Greenwald)
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To: RockinRight

Dividing a state’s electoral votes by congressional district would magnify the worst features of the Electoral College system. What the country needs is a national popular vote to make every person’s vote equally important to presidential campaigns.

If the district approach were used nationally, it would be less fair and less accurately reflect the will of the people than the current system. In 2004, Bush won 50.7% of the popular vote, but 59% of the districts. Although Bush lost the national popular vote in 2000, he won 55% of the country’s congressional districts.

The district approach would not cause presidential candidates to campaign in a particular state or focus the candidates’ attention to issues of concern to the state. Under the 48 state-by-state winner-take-all laws(whether applied to either districts or states), candidates have no reason to campaign in districts or states where they are comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind. In North Carolina, for example, there are only 2 districts (the 13th with a 5% spread and the 2nd with an 8% spread) where the presidential race is competitive. In California, the presidential race is competitive in only 3 of the state’s 53 districts. Nationwide, there are only 55 “battleground” districts that are competitive in presidential elections. Under the present deplorable 48 state-level winner-take-all system, two-thirds of the states (including California and Texas) are ignored in presidential elections; however, seven-eighths of the nation’s congressional districts would be ignored if a district-level winner-take-all system were used nationally.

Because there are generally more close votes on district levels than states as whole, district elections increase the opportunity for error. The larger the voting base, the less opportunity there is for an especially close vote.


46 posted on 06/24/2011 9:22:23 AM PDT by mvymvy
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