[EL] Electoral votes proportioned to popular vote by state?

[Scarberry, Mark]

My colleague Grant Nelson asked me to pose a question to the list:

Wouldn't it be desirable to divide each state's electoral votes proportionally based on the popular vote in the state? Then, as the NPVIC proponents like to say, every vote would count (even if the voter lives in a state that strongly supports a candidate that the voter opposes). There would have to be rules for how to divide the electoral votes, but this approach would avoid the practical problems associated with determining a national popular vote winner. On the other hand, it would have to implemented by way of a constitutional amendment. Even if you think a compact can bind states to use a method of appointing electors, this approach would only work if all states (or almost all states) joined the compact; it would be easier to amend the Constitution than to get all the states to sign on to such a compact.

In any event, Grant wanted to know who might have proposed or analyzed such an approach.

Mark

Mark S. Scarberry
Pepperdine Univ. School of Law
Malibu, CA 90263
(310)506-4667


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