Glad that changing it right before the election looks dead in the water.
That said, if they change to winner take all in 2025 and Maine follows suite, I'd consider it a net gain. Removes uncertainty from the system so that we never need to go through this again. It also gets rid of the last vestiges of a failed experiment on electoral vote allocation. One of the last things we want is for more states to consider adopting the EV-by-CD system.
On paper I agree, but then I think about how complex it would be in practice that I start to dislike it. If we're going to change the system it should be to make it a straight up national popular vote.
The issue with per-state proportionality is that EVs represent individual voters in the EC, so fractional EVs do not exist. Each state would instead have EV thresholds that determine how the EVs are allocated. Depending on how those allocations work out, it could end up even less democratic than the current system. It does have the potential to be better, too, but it's a lot of change for minimal upside even if it does work well.
The risk/reward ratio is bad, and the risk/reward/difficulty is even worse. The difficulty of achieving a national popular vote is arguably lower while having far greater reward for the country.
I agree! And I meant the experiment as a transition to straight-up national popular vote.
The problem now is that voters in more than 40 states are essentially disenfranchised with regards to their presidential vote. The result in their state is given and thus their vote is irrelevant. Seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with a system that concentrates presidential campaigning to less than ten swing states – while sidelining the rest of the country.
Or just do away with it completely! No need to make weird fixes around the edges that would take a constitutional amendment when you could just get rid of the electoral college with a constitutional amendment
McDonnell says he won't vote to change electoral college rules before the election. Winner-take-all seems to be dead. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/23/politics/nebraska-election-law-trump/index.html
It was my understanding that there were always 3 non negotiable votes(holding the balance of power)
Glad that changing it right before the election looks dead in the water.
That said, if they change to winner take all in 2025 and Maine follows suite, I'd consider it a net gain. Removes uncertainty from the system so that we never need to go through this again. It also gets rid of the last vestiges of a failed experiment on electoral vote allocation. One of the last things we want is for more states to consider adopting the EV-by-CD system.
A better experiment is for states to allocate Electoral Votes proportionally to the popular vote.
On paper I agree, but then I think about how complex it would be in practice that I start to dislike it. If we're going to change the system it should be to make it a straight up national popular vote.
The issue with per-state proportionality is that EVs represent individual voters in the EC, so fractional EVs do not exist. Each state would instead have EV thresholds that determine how the EVs are allocated. Depending on how those allocations work out, it could end up even less democratic than the current system. It does have the potential to be better, too, but it's a lot of change for minimal upside even if it does work well.
The risk/reward ratio is bad, and the risk/reward/difficulty is even worse. The difficulty of achieving a national popular vote is arguably lower while having far greater reward for the country.
I agree! And I meant the experiment as a transition to straight-up national popular vote.
The problem now is that voters in more than 40 states are essentially disenfranchised with regards to their presidential vote. The result in their state is given and thus their vote is irrelevant. Seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with a system that concentrates presidential campaigning to less than ten swing states – while sidelining the rest of the country.
The better experiment is abolition imo
Or just do away with it completely! No need to make weird fixes around the edges that would take a constitutional amendment when you could just get rid of the electoral college with a constitutional amendment
Except the chances of passing a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College are ... exactly Zero.
Well, yes, but they are also zero for making the EC proportional, which was the original suggestion
That can be done state by state. Likewise with joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.