Posted on 07/30/2004 4:26:39 PM PDT by ambrose
Initiative would change the way Colorado allocates electoral votes
By Kyle Henley The Gazette
DENVER - A citizen initiative to reform the way Colorado votes in presidential elections could affect who sits in the White House next year.
On Friday, a citizen group submitted 130,000 signatures to the Secretary of States Office to put an initiative on the ballot that would alter the way Colorado allocates Electoral College votes in presidential contests.
The measure, called the Colorado Electoral College Reform Initiative, would put Colorado on the leading edge of election reform in the nation.
The Electoral College, rather than the popular vote, is what determines presidential races.
Each state receives a set number of electoral votes based on the size of its congressional delegation. Colorado, for example, has nine Electoral College votes.
Currently, Colorado is one of 48 winner-take-all states. In 2000, George W. Bush won 51 percent of the vote here and walked away with 100 percent of the state's Electoral College votes.
But backers of the initiative want to divvy Electoral College votes between candidates based on their performance.
"Proportional representation is a more democratic method of selecting electors and provides a truer portrait of Colorado's political composition," campaign manager Rick Ridder said.
Using the example of the 2000 election in Colorado, Bush would have received five Electoral College votes and Al Gore would have picked up the other three. At that time, the state had eight total votes.
Maine and Nebraska are the only other states that split Electoral College delegates, though in a different manner than is being proposed here. In those states, the presidential winner in each congressional district gets an electoral vote.
Backers of the measure want it to have an impact right away. If the measure passes, it would go into effect immediately and be in play in the race between Democrat John Kerry and President Bush.
"When something needs correction, why would you wait until four more years for it to go into effect," asked campaign spokeswoman Julie Brown. "We believe this needs fixing now."
If the race between Kerry and Bush ends up being a close one, the Colorado iniative could be a factor in deciding who wins.
In 2000 Gore won the popular vote nationwide but lost the Electoral College vote. Changes like the reform being suggested here would make such a scenario less possible.
About 68,000 signatures from valid Colorado voters are needed to put an initiative on the statewide ballot. Election officials will spend the next few weeks verifying signatures to see if the measure will earn a spot on the November ballot.
The Colorado Republican Party will lead the opposition if the initiative makes the ballot. The GOP, with its registration advantage in Colorado, usually carries the day here
Interesting. I doubt it will pass, but it certainly does throw a wild card into the mix.
I am surprised this hasn't been tried in California..
Time for an initiative petition.
You shouldn't be, it would hurt the demonrats, not help them.
Paging Mr. Madison. Mr. James Madison. Please pick up white courtesy phone No. 10 in the rotunda.
that's the point. there are many initiatives on the ballot in CA that hurt the Dems... some of them even pass from time to time.
It would be worth a shot here, The dims would freak over giving near half of those electoral votes to us.
http://tinyurl.com/4a26q
Does the story above mention the party tie?
Damn CRATS will do anything to get their jerk elected. Let me warn you now, if he is, that will be the end of America. Kerry will invite the terrorist in for a party. If we can do the same for California and New York I believe President Bush would win by a landslide.
Yes it would essentially nullify the electoral college.
I am surprised this hasn't been tried in California..
Because Demoncrats always win the CA electoral votes, why would they want to share them?
Seriesly
Denver is full of liberals (so is Boulder for that matter), not very surprising.
Well, I hope it isn't tried here, because it's a bad idea. If the Colorado initiative wins, the Supreme Court will probably make all states' winner-take-all laws "unconstitutional" based upon "one-man one-vote."
If the rules change, campaign strategy will change. We will still prevail as long as we are on the side of God, mother, and apple pie.
I hate to break it to the Colarado Democratic Party, but ex post facto laws are unconstitutional. If it passed, it could not be used to apportion electoral votes on an election that already happened.
They just want this to go to the Supreme Court so they can scream "Bush was selected, not elected" for another four years.
This is a very stupid idea. It reduces the power of the state to impact the winning candidate's vote. On the surface that may not sound so bad, but here's why it is.
If you'll only pick up 1 electoral vote in a state, why bother going there? If you can take all the votes, that makes it much more attractive to show up.
Small states with 8 electoral votes are the very states where the winner take all is most important.
Proportional electoral votes virtually eliminates the benefit of the electoral college, which was intended to give small states more power. The more power, they more voice they had.
If Colorado wants to eliminate their voice, this is the best way to do it.
and with gerrymandering, only a few districts in the state will be worth campaigning in...
this is just a cheap short term tactic to benefit Kerry, and little else.
I agree.
With all the reports that newspapers had done physical counts of the chad/problematic ballots in Florida, and if anything Bush had won by a larger margin, there are still people out there who think Gore won. I guess there will always be a certain segment of society who's mental capacity never advances beyond that of a child. Course I've known children smarter than this.
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