Government Documents/Maps

Everyone still remembers the 2000 election between former Vice President Al Gore and George W. Bush, right?

Of course.  Well, I don’t mean to bring up painful memories, but as of April 28, 2009 Washington state has joined Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, and New Jersey by passing the National Popular Vote bill which would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia) (NationalPopularVote.com).

If you all remember, the results were in:

(Source: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0876793.html)

Yet somehow, we ended up with the Bush/Cheney duo.  How did this happen?  The electoral college voting system allocates all of a state’s electoral college votes to the popular vote winner in that state.  This makes swing states, that is states that are pretty close in terms of red and blue voters, popular campaign spots for candidates since states that have a strong majority of D or R are likely to continue to vote D or R. 

Washington is traditionally a blue state, but we do have a significant population that might be inclined to vote GOP.  Even if the majority vote blue, let’s say, 3 million votes, and 1 million go red, WA would go to the democratic candidate, and the 1 million would go essentially without a vote.  With the National Popular Vote Act, WA would color itself blue, allocate 3 million to the blue national popular vote, 1 million to the red national popular vote, and await the official end count.  If, at the end, the national popular vote of the republican candidate was larger than that of the democrat, WA would give its electoral college votes to the republican candidate and concede to that candidate as winner. 

This, as of right now, is not in effect.  The voting plan for presidential elections is a State responsibility, not a federal one.  So is this just a nice gesture by a few states who believe in direct democracy?  No, it will hopefully be more than that.  So far, 23% (61) of the 270 Electoral Votes that are needed to activate the law have been collected.  There are 538 total electoral college votes, therefore, 270 would represent a majority of the votes.  When several more states enact the identical bill, whose electoral votes total the remaining 209 (or more), the majority of the votes will be held by states who agree to concede to the popular vote winner.  Thus, we may what happened in 2000 again, but as soon as we have a popular vote, these states will, according to the commitment they have signed in this act, allocate all of their electoral college votes to the popular vote winner, thus making her the president. 

The bill is currently endorsed by 1,659 state legislators — 763 sponsors (in 48 states) and an additional 896 legislators who have cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.

Additional information is available at www.NationalPopularVote.com.

Thanks Chris Gregoire + WA legislature!  We may not have banned the Patriot Act, but at least we’ve got CA on this one!

…but will they get us with legalizing marijuana??

Robyn Adair
Gov Docs ‘n Maps