Let me pose a few questions to everyone:
- If a presidential candidate ran on an environmental platform that said, “if elected I will cancel all forest service access contracts with ski resorts, to protect the environment,” would Colorado vote for them?
- If a presidential candidate, perhaps from California, ran on a platform that said, “if elected I will sign declarations that cause all western Rockies water rights to go to California, Nevada, and Arizona, and appoint judges that will help drive that home,” would Colorado vote for them?
- If a presidential candidate ran on a platform to eliminate drilling and extraction of fossil fuels within the Great Plains (basically the entire mid-continent land area), which would eliminate over 250,000 Colorado jobs and destroy our economy locally, would Colorado vote for them?
- If a presidential candidate ran on a platform that said, “if elected I would sell all National Park lands to the highest bidder,” would Colorado vote for them?
The answer to all of these, for most of us, is a resounding NO.
What if these candidates lost Colorado voters by a 60-40 margin; or a 75-25 margin; or a 90-10 margin? But in the national popular vote, these candidates won the national majority by 1 vote. In the current electoral college system, they may still lose the election, despite having 1 more vote. But in the new law Governor Polis and the Democrat-controlled legislature are pushing through, Colorado would no longer care how we voted, our electoral votes would all go to that candidate. Pay close attention, Colorado folks. This is the legislature running amok. In their first few weeks in control.
Take another example: A candidate (let’s say, Nikki) runs for president and is winning most states across the nation. In fact, that candidate is winning every state, by roughly 250,000 votes in each state. But California goes to the polls and votes resoundingly for the other person (let’s say, Kamala). 90% for that person. And Kamala wins nationwide by 1 vote. In the pact that several states (and now, Colorado as well, through our new Democrat-controlled-everything) are trying to enter into, they would not care that their populations all voted for Nikki. They would not care that Nikki earned 483 out of 538 electoral votes. All those votes would now be awarded to Kamala. California just drove the election and thwarted the majority will of 49 other states.
Some states do distribute electoral votes based on districts and some by all-or-nothing policies, but the result in the above example would be the same if we sign into law this ridiculous “national popular vote gets our electoral votes” initiative.
Check the articles in the Constitution that address this, especially Article 12. Electoral votes are distributed based on how many senators and congressmen each state has, and the District of Columbia gets 3 themselves. The intent was simple: Give every state a voice, no matter how small. Do not, under any circumstances, allow a nation to be driven by just a handful of powerful people and locations. This is what led to us having a revolution, for those of us that forgot our history and civics…
Everyone should agree that the electoral college is not perfect, but it does force a bit of balance between the big and the small. It still gives places like California, Texas, Florida, and New York the biggest say in elections, but it mutes that down a bit by giving representation to all the little guys. Colorado is a little guy, folks. And our interests must be represented. If this law passes, Colorado will toss their votes into the hat of “whomever has most wins.” On the surface this seems logical, but read those articles in the constitution. Understand why it was done the way it was. The founding fathers knew that all places in the country were going to need appropriate representation and a voice. That’s why the House was set up based on population census (state population drives number of congressmen you get) and the Senate was set up as 2 senators for every state – to equalize the conversation.
In a popular vote, and not a muted electoral college system (the way it was intended), 2-3 states will drive the election results for all of us. Period. And guess what – candidates will focus all their time, money, and messaging in those 2-3 places. So, going way back to the top of this post, where the platforms seemed extreme, are they really? What if 40M people in California (19M of voting age) drive a big environmental push like they did for the emissions on their cars that they have today? What if part of that push would be to take all the water from the Colorado River project, and their candidate runs on that platform and wins… What will Colorado do? If that candidate wins the national election by 1 vote, and California voted 90% for that candidate but nobody else did, Colorado (3.3M voters) will award them our 9 electoral votes under this totally ridiculous idea.
Wake up, voters! This system was created for a really, really good reason. Go re-educate yourselves. Then call the people at the capital working on doing this.
