New Jersey State Senate voted yesterday to deliver the State’s 15 electoral votes to whichever candidate receives the national popular vote. In a press release currently being drafted, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is expected to alert New Jersey residents to stay home on election day because he has chosen to give away their vote.

The measure could result in the electoral votes going to a candidate opposed by voters in New Jersey, which has backed Democratic presidential candidates since 1988.

The compact would take effect only if enough states — those with a majority of votes in the Electoral College — agreed to it. A candidate needs 270 of 538 electoral votes to win.

So far, Maryland — with 10 electoral votes — is the only state to pass the compact into law.

It has also passed both houses of the Illinois Legislature, according to the National Popular Vote movement, and has been approved by one legislative house in Arkansas, Colorado and North Carolina.

The idea behind abolishing the electoral college is due largely to the 2000 election, with many feeling Bush actually lost the election, and without an electoral college, a recount in Florida would not have been needed. If however the election were to be decided on a popular vote basis, not only would a recount in Florida have been necessary, it is very likely a recount in every state would have been necessary as well. The amount of votes separating Gore from Bush amounted to one half of one percent of the votes, clearly Bush would have requested a recount nationwide if it were not for the electoral college.

In that same election Gore carried only 676 counties, while Bush carried 2,436 counties. Geographically speaking, Bush had won in a landslide, however because large parts of our population are concentrated in certain States, Gore managed to win the popular vote. This begs the question, if the President were to be decided by popular vote alone, would voters in rural areas be completely ignored by the candidates?

National Popular Vote Inc. is leading the charge in this debate, their purpose is “to study, analyze and educate the public regarding a proposal to provide for the nationwide popular election of the President.” This group actually advocates bypassing a Constitutional amendment to alter our electoral process, and are asking the States to do it on their own. Their proposal calls on states to award their electoral votes to the candidate with the highest vote count nationally. If enough states do that, the candidate with the most votes nationally would be guaranteed to win the election.

Ironically the idea behind this “movement” is that certain States are ignored in Presidential elections. The outcome of this movement however will guarantee those States are ignored in the future! What Presidential candidate will feel it necessary to campaign in New Jersey when they know they will get New Jersey’s electoral votes by winning more populous States such as New York, California and Texas?

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Election 2008, Politics