[EL] Instructive lesson from Rick's blog entry "Map of the Day" -- and fallow(s) thinking about reform

Fri Feb 15 10:02:32 PST 2013

When I looked at the map, the first thing I thought of was the old Sinclair Lewis novel, "It Can't Happen Here." One of the first things they do is redesign the states.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Rob Richie [rr at fairvote.org]
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2013 11:20 AM
To: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: [EL] Instructive lesson from Rick's blog entry "Map of the Day" -- and fallow(s) thinking about reform

Kudos to Rick for 10 years of blogging and overseeing a listserv that has actually worked over time (a one-of-a-kind experience for me).

I wanted to highlight Rick's short item below on "Map of the Day" for underscoring the rather remarkable blindness otherwise intelligent people can bring to trying to structure a fair electoral system.

This "map of the day" is based on dividing the United States into 50 states of equal population. Those states then could be divided into congressional districts of equal population. And with malapportionment banished from the scene, we allegedly would have fair elections.

I suspect Rick doesn't think that's true, but NPR science reporter Robert Krulwich apparently does. He titles his blog about the plan "A Crazy But Rational Solution To Our Electoral College Problem." And he's not alone. Jim Fallows -- founding chairman of the New America Foundation, former editor of the US News and long time Atlantic correspondents -- also lauds the plan in a blog for the Atlantic this week. (See: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/the-new-and-improved-electoral-college-map/273190/)

Well, no Jim and Robert, it's not a rational idea. It's not a good idea. It's a profoundly undemocratic plan that can only be explained through acknowledgment of our irrational fetish for geographic representation and making where you live more important than what you think.  It doesn't makes sense, yet likely speaks to the many pundits who think that all that's wrong with House elections is gerrymandering and that we can make one-seat districts fair with commissions creating plans kind of like this 50-state map.

Neil Freeman, the map's creator, suggests that his plan might have some downsides. He mentions a couple, but neglects a rather big one: the candidate with the most votes could easily lose. And in fact, the candidate with the most votes in 2012 would have lost badly in this plan in 2012 with the same distribution of votes.

It takes Michael Barone, no fan of reform, to point this out. Barone discusses the plan in a piece rightly explaining that gerrymandering doesn't explain why House Republicans won a majority of seats while losing the popular vote and losing in the underlying preference of voters at the polls by some four percentage points. In his piece (http://washingtonexaminer.com/it-wasnt-just-redistricting-that-gave-republicans-their-house-majority/article/2521565), he explains that he thinks that the Freeman plan would have resulted in Romney winning by 29 to 21 in the contest for 50 "electoral college units." He writes:

"I estimated which of their 50 states had more votes cast for Barack Obama and which had more votes cast for Mitt Romney. My count is Romney 29, Obama 21. So their plan would have produced a Romney presidency. Now obviously the campaign would have been conducted differently if the Electoral College worked that way. But my point remains solid: in an election in which Obvama won the popular vote 51%-47%, a politically neutral division of the nation into 50 equal-population states would have given Romney 58% of the electoral votes and Obama 42%. Equal-population districts work against the Obama Democratic coalition."

But hey, that's okay with Fallows, Krulwich and Freeman. They also don't seem to care a whit that this proposal would still preserve the dynamic of a handful of swing states and everyone else experiencing the proverbial crickets when it comes to presidential elections -- just like the voters in the 38 states (counting DC) that were ignored in both 2008 and 2012.

The aversion to the principle of one-person, one-vote in such proposals - that is, coming up with excuses to be against a popular vote for president and forms of proportional representation for congressional elections  -- is rather remarkable to see 13 years into the 21st century. People like me who see it differently have work to do.

Rob Richie

########
Map of the Day<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47295>
Posted on February 15, 2013 7:18 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=47295> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Redrawing<http://fakeisthenewreal.org/reform/> the United States as 50 states with equal population.

MORE <http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/02/15/172029048/a-crazy-but-rational-solution-to-our-electoral-college-problem?ft=1&f=1014&sc=tw> from Robert Krulwich.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"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<mailto:rr at fairvote.org>
(301) 270-4616<tel:%28301%29%20270-4616>

Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations -- see http://fairvote.org/donate. For federal employees, please consider  a gift to us through the Combined Federal Campaign (FairVote's  CFC number is 10132.) Thank you!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20130215/2751aec9/attachment.html>