Article II Section I
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; but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of
trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed elector.
We are witnessing a movement in blue states whereas the
winner-takes-all Electoral College system is coming into question. These “blue states” want a system that is
more reflective of their State’s political philosophy. They want one that is more proportional. Maine and Nebraska already have this system. The dichotomy of states with a Republican
dominated legislature and governor, and at the same time are Democratic
bastions for presidential elections have people shaking their heads. Should the citizens of a state, as a whole,
be held hostage by an enclave of heavily populated districts whose values are
counter to their own?
Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North
Carolina have a republican dominated legislature and governor. All had their Electoral College votes go to
Barack Obama, except North Carolina.
Citizens of those states must be asking themselves if this is a fair
representation. Why should one district
be subjected to the tyranny of another just because they have a higher
population?
We’re all aware of interstate rivalries. California doesn’t hold the same values as
Arizona or North Carolina. The same goes
for intrastate rivalries. Rural
districts don’t have the same values as urban.
For instance, cities like Detroit trump a small Michigan town in
national politics due to the size of their population. Here is a map of the 2012 county by county election
results for the state of Michigan, along with their congressional districts.
A winner-takes-all system disenfranchises the rural
citizen. Obama and the Democrats wouldn’t
take states like Michigan for granted if a proportional system were to be
employed. And for that matter, the 17th
Amendment should be repealed as well.
But that is a different bag of nails that need to be hammered.
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