Obama maintains lead over McCain in electoral votes
September 5, 2008 at 2:32 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsEven after the unveiling of Wonder Woman, reminding us for days that he was imprisoned FIVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS in a POW camp, and saying he’d work with Democrats after he lashed them in front of his pachyderm brethren, John McCain still lags behind Barack Obama.
From Electoral Votes:
(Hat tip to Nick Douglas)
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September 5th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
What? John McCain was a POW? He should play that up in his campaign!
September 8th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
The real issue is not how well Obama or McCain might do in the closely divided battleground states, but that we shouldn’t have battleground states and spectator states in the first place. Every vote in every state should be politically relevant in a presidential election. And, every vote should be equal. We should have a national popular vote for President in which the White House goes to the candidate who gets the most popular votes in all 50 states.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC). The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral vote — that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Because of state-by-state enacted rules for winner-take-all awarding of their electoral votes, recent candidates with limited funds have concentrated their attention on a handful of closely divided “battleground” states. In 2004 two-thirds of the visits and money were focused in just six states; 88% on 9 states, and 99% of the money went to just 16 states. Two-thirds of the states and people have been merely spectators to the presidential election.
Another shortcoming of the current system is that a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide.
The National Popular Vote bill has passed 21 state legislative chambers, including one house in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These four states possess 50 electoral votes– 19% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
susan
September 8th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Too bad there is no Constitutional recognition or guarantee of an individual right to vote for President.
Similar to the Senate, the electors were intentionally set up to prevent mob rule by heavily populated (urban) states from dictating the government to lightly populated states (rural) states. That being the case, it works perfectly, testimony to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers.