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

[Rob Richie]

Not to toot one's own horn, but I think this question is addressed
particularly well in three products I've had a hand in:

* Chapter 4 of Every Vote Equal, which is available for download at:
http://www.every-vote-equal.com/

* FairVote's"Fuzzy Math" report on the idea of allocating electoral votes
by district and by proportional
http://www.fairvote.org/fuzzy-math-wrong-way-reforms-for-allocating-electoral-college-votes<http://www.fairvote.org/fuzzy-math-wrong-way-reforms-for-allocating-electoral-college-votes#.UHXzJS7A9mg>

* My testimony to the Pennsylvania state legislature last year:
http://www.fairvote.org/fairvote-testimony-PA

These analyses all assume "whole number" allocation of electors. That whole
number method results in distortions in proportionality -- and would result
in many states still being ignored because candidates would see that any
campaign activity wouldn't affect their share of electoral votes. One
theoretically could do fractional allocation of electoral votes, but that
would take a constitutional amendment -- and at that point, why not just
make the "fraction" every individual voter and go to a national popular
vote.

The proportional allocation reform approach gets even messier for partisan
reasons when done state by state -- which is precisely why states after a
few decades moved to winner-take-all statewide. (Going to winner-take-all
statewide was not done for any principled reasons, despite current attempts
to justify it with arguments that weren't the motivation for states to
adopt it. See
http://www.fairvote.org/how-the-electoral-college-became-winner-take-all<http://www.fairvote.org/how-the-electoral-college-became-winner-take-all#.UHX0Ji7A9mg>
 )

While dismissive of whole number proportional allocation, I am a huge
advocate of replacing winner-take-all elections for Congress with modest
forms of proportional representation, most recently demonstrated well in
our flash animation USA map at http://www.fairvotingus.com  . Indeed, doing
so is the only way to bring the National Popular Vote plan principles of
"every vote equal" and "a meaningful vote for every voter in every
election" to elections for the House.

- Rob Richie, FairVote

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 6:05 PM, Scarberry, Mark <
Mark.Scarberry at pepperdine.edu> wrote:

> 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 ****
>
> ** **
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"

Rob Richie
Executive Director

FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.fairvote.org  <http://www.fairvote.org> rr at fairvote.org
(301) 270-4616

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