Stealing The 2008 Vote

from TomPaine.com:


Stealing The 2008 Vote
Rob Richie, TomPaine.com
August 29, 2007


Rob Richie is executive director of FairVote and co-author of its recent report, " Fuzzy Math: Wrong Way Reforms for Allocating Electoral Votes."


If you thought Tom DeLay's Texas gerrymandering scam in 2003 was bad, just wait. Now partisans are seeking to steal the 2008 presidential election.

It's that serious. Taking advantage of the frustration their supporters understandably feel about their powerless role in presidential elections, leading California Republicans are promoting an initiative to divide California's slate of 55 electoral votes. Rather than all electoral votes going to the statewide winner, each U.S. House district in a state would elect one presidential elector, while the statewide popular vote winner would take the two electoral votes corresponding to states' Senate seats.

That way, the Golden State's GOP would deliver a score of electoral votes to their party's nominee. When you see that some Democrats in North Carolina have advanced the same plan in order to pick up four or five electoral votes for their ticket, the plan may seem evenhanded.

In fact it is indefensible policy no matter how it is done—state-by-state or nationally. Allocation of electoral votes by congressional district may give more weight to a state's oft-frustrated minority party, but it breaks down in yielding accurate representation of the will of the nation at large. We should be seeking fair elections of presidents, not faceless electors. Through that lens the congressional district plan utterly fails two important criteria: representation of the national will and equal relevance of all Americans.

In 2000, for example, Al Gore won the popular vote by 0.5 percent while George Bush took the presidency with a 0.9 percent victory in the Electoral College. With a district-by-district vote in all states, Bush's electoral vote margin would have increased to 7.1 percent. That's an eight-fold distortion of an already distorted result. Bush's margin would have similarly increased if only California had enacted the district plan. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/08/29/stealing_the_2008_vote.php