Electoral college; candidates for President who win popular vote will receive votes of electors. (HB1171)

Introduced By

Del. Vivian Watts (D-Annandale)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Electoral college.  Provides that the Commonwealth's votes in the electoral college shall be allocated by the popular vote statewide and in each congressional district. The candidates for President and Vice President who win the popular statewide vote will receive the votes of the two statewide electors, and the candidates who win the popular vote in each congressional district will receive the vote of that district's elector. Maine and Nebraska allocate electoral college votes in this manner. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/17/2012Committee
01/17/2012Presented and ordered printed 12104224D
01/17/2012Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections
01/23/2012Assigned P & E sub: Constitutional Amendments Subcommittee
01/27/2012Impact statement from DPB (HB1171)
02/06/2012Subcommittee recommends laying on the table
02/14/2012Left in Privileges and Elections

Comments

robert legge writes:

If everyone did it this way, that would be fine. But we shouldn't be mixing electoral methods.

Judith Ewart writes:

Regarding 24.2-203:

The Legislature has the opportunity to finally make the Virginia electorial votes reflect the popular voting results of its citizens. Unfortunately, this proposed bill does not do that, although it is better than allowing the electors the freedom to vote for any candidate on the ballot as the current legislation states.

Clearly the optimal solution is to change the proposed bill to divide the total Virginia Electorial College votes into the same percentage by candidate (or rounded if necessary) as the popular vote across the Commonwealth. Then the Virginia elector votes would reflect the voice of the people of this Commonwealth.

A lesser optimal solution for each Virginia voter's vote to be counted reasonably equally is if the vote of each elector is split into the same percentage as the percentages of the overall votes to each candidate on the ballot - not totally to the winner as the proposed amendment specifies. Then all the partial votes are tallied for each candidate to arrive at the total Virginia electorial votes for each candidate. But this solution still begs the question of fairness: larger population districts versus smaller ones, each district having 1 vote.

The bill as proposed is a distant 3rd choice to fix the potential for an absurd abuse, where the electors can vote in opposition to the votes of Virginians. At least the electors have to give their vote to the candidate that won the popular vote in their district or at large across the state.

I hope I live to see the day when national elections are a simple tally of all votes cast nationally in the election to declare the winner! And on that historic day, the Electorial College becomes an extinct dinosaur.

Judith Ewart