OK, so we're stuck with the Electoral College. If we want to improve the presidential election process, what are our realistic options? The best idea around is the interstate compact for the national popular vote. Recognizing that the Electoral College is hear to stay, and utilizing the constitutional provision that the states are free to decide how to cast their electoral votes, it is a proposed agreement among the states to cast all of their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote for president. The compact would enter into force once a number of states constituting a majority of the Electoral College (at least 270 votes) have agreed to it. We can't get rid of the Electoral College, but we can reflect the will of the nation. Maryland became the first state to get on board. In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger blew California's opportunity to lead the nation on this issue by vetoing the national popular vote bill. California state Senator Carole Migden reintroduced the bill in the 2007 session.
Meanwhile, in response to the Republican Party's nefarious plot to put an initiative on the June 2008 ballot that would peel off about 20 of California's electoral votes for themselves, an initiative on the interstate compact for the national popular vote is in the offing. And, yet another group is proposing a third initiative! But, is any of this legal? Does the US Constitution permit a state to determine via a ballot initiative how to cast its electoral votes? Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 says in part: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress." The Legislature directs... how does this power devolve upon the voters?
Schwarzenegger Veto Keeps Californians UntermenschenThomas Gangale
California Progress Report
Oakland, California
4 October 2006
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/10/schwarzenegger_27.html
At the end of September, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had the opportunity to do all Californians a great service. Instead, he chose to do us a great injustice.
Even before the "presidential selection" of 2000, when the Supreme Court stopped the recount of votes in Florida and gave the presidency to the loser of the nationwide popular vote, people clamored for abolishing the antiquated Electoral College in favor of direct popular vote for president and vice president. There have been hundreds of unsuccessful bills in Congress. The problem is that this 18th century anachronism is hardwired into the design of the American republic. It would take a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College outright.
A proposed amendment must first pass both houses of Congress by a 2/3 majority, then be ratified by the legislatures in 3/4 of the states. How hard is that? Very. There have been only 27 amendments to the Constitution. Eleven of these (1-10 and 27) were the Bill of Rights, which were an immediate supplement to the Constitution. Three others (13-15) took a civil war to bring into being. That leaves only 13 that have been proposed and ratified through an orderly political process since the era of the Constitution's original framing and implementation in the 1790s.
Recently, a clever way around this obstacle has been introduced in state legislatures around the country. Once a number of states, comprising 270 votes in the Electoral College, agree to cast all of their votes for the winner of the national popular vote, an interstate compact will go into effect. California had an opportunity to become the first state to sign up to this compact. Both the Assembly and the Senate passed the bill (AB 2948) and sent it to the Gubernator's desk for signature. California's 55 electoral votes would have put the interstate compact 1/5 of the way to its goal of 270. Instead, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill.
His excuse was incredibly lame: "It disregards the will of a majority of Californians" and "is counter to the tradition of our great nation which honor states rights and the unique pride and identity of each state."
Huh? By every poll ever taken, most Californians would love to ditch the Electoral College! And, as for "states' rights," that political code has been used to defend all sorts of despicable "peculiar institutions." Is it possible that Skynet programmed the Terminator to time-travel back to an ante bellum slave state and he wound up in the here and now by mistake, naked and confused?
Let's do some simple math that even a Kindergarden Cop ought to be able to follow. Each state's electoral votes equal its number of senators and number of members of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is based on population; the more populous that state, the more representatives it is apportioned. However, every state, regardless of population, has two senators. The 2000 Census counted 33.9 million Californians and 494 thousand Wyomingites, yet California has two senators... and so does Wyoming. On the basis of population, California was apportioned 53 representatives; Wyoming only one. So, adding the number of senators and representatives, California had 55 electoral votes and Wyoming has three. Sound fair? Not so fast! Fifty-five electoral votes for 33.9 million Californians means there is one vote for every 616 thousand Californians; three electoral votes for 494 thousand Wyomingites means there is one vote for every 165 thousand Wyomingites. In other words, every resident of Wyoming has nearly four times the political power of a Californian.
Another Schwarzenegger movie title comes to mind: "Raw Deal." The Electoral College is all that. It makes all Californians political untermenschen (subhumans).
That suits Governor Schwarzenegger just fine. Why? The two most recent presidential elections happen to have been among the closest in American history. In 2004, George W. Bush won the popular vote by less than three percent. In 2000, Al Gore's margin of victory was half a percent. Yet, in both elections, President Bush won in 31 states, and his Democratic opponent won in only 19 states plus the District of Columbia. This means that both times President Bush was awarded 22 more electoral votes than his opponent, based on lines drawn on a map rather than on votes cast by flesh-and-blood humans.
So, Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of the interstate compact makes no sense to California. It makes a lot of sense to Wyoming, but we're not in Wyoming. It also makes sense to a Republican who puts the interests of his party ahead of those of his people. By vetoing this bill, the Gubernator has again shown that he is a partisan first and a Californian second... or worse. But, hopefully, next year there will be a new bill... and a new governor to sign it into law for the benefit of all Californians.
No comments:
Post a Comment