MA legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College

Martin Finucane
The Boston Globe
7/27/2010

The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

“What we are submitting is the idea that the president should be selected by the majority of people in the United States of America,” Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said before the Senate voted to enact the bill.

Under the new bill, he said, “Every vote will be of the same weight across the country.”

But Senate minority leader Richard Tisei said the state was meddling with a system that was “tried and true” since the founding of the country.

“We’ve had a lot of bad ideas come through this chamber over the years, but this is going to be one of the worst ideas that has surfaced and actually garnered some support,” said Tisei, who is also the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.

The bill, which passed on a 28-to-9 vote, now heads to Democratic Governor Deval Patrick’s desk. The governor has said in the past that he supports the bill, said his spokeswoman Kim Haberlin.

Under the law, which was enacted by the House last week, all 12 of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally…

…Opponents say the current system works. They are concerned about a possible scenario where Candidate X wins nationally, but Candidate Y has won in Massachusetts. In that case, all of the state’s 12 electoral votes would go to Candidate X, the candidate who was not supported by Massachusetts voters…

The complete article is at the Globe.

Common American Journal disagrees with Senator Eldridge’s assertion,”Every vote will be of the same weight across the country.” The Electoral College guarantees that less populated states, generally the “Red States”, will have an equal say in national elections. At the moment, these states are not under-represented against the more heavily populated cities of the “Blue States.” But under Sen. Eldridge’s proposal, the larger cities of the Blue States would determine every outcome in national elections while the less populated states would have less impact than they have now. This would be one more means of ensuring the Progressive political agenda prevails indefinitely in the United States.

Comments are closed.

Categories