(this reform is long past due. – promoted by eli_beckerman)

National Popular Vote – A Voting Reform to Support

“Politics should be local, and with the passage of this reform presidential politics in Massachusetts will be local.”

The Massachusetts House plans a debate this week on a voting reform which I support, known as “National Popular Vote” (NPV).  The incumbent in the 4th Berkshire District co-sponsored this legislation in the last legislative session (H660 in January 2009), it eventually passed in the House but stalled in the Senate. I urge the incumbent to join me in support of it again during this session, and to join me in educating voters on why this reform is worth supporting.

Because of the way that Massachusetts’ electoral college votes are awarded now, voters here are ignored by the national presidential campaign organizations; we’re decidedly not a ‘swing state.’  Even local groups supporting a presidential candidate will ignore their neighbors, preferring to work the ‘swing states.’

The NPV reform would set the stage for a change in the way Massachusetts’ electoral college votes are awarded in the nation’s presidential elections.  The change would make it meaningful to return to local campaigning.  

Once in place, our electoral college votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide.  The system would go into affect when a sufficient number of states enter the compact, thereby assuring that the winner of the presidential election is the candidate with the most popular votes.

The U.S. Constitution gives each state legislature total discretion in the way the state awards its electoral college votes, so no constitutional amendment is required to put this system into effect.  The history of the electoral college is an interesting one, and many states have made several changes in the course of history to the way its electoral college votes are awarded.  Usually the motivations for making the changes have been to focus more attention on the state’s voters, to entice more spending from campaigns in local media, and to give local political groups more clout with presidential campaigns.

Massachusetts will benefit in the three ways outlined in the previous paragraph.  Currently, presidential campaigns preparing for the general election will visit Massachusetts only to schmooze with the big money.  With National Popular Vote these campaigns will have an incentive to actually campaign in Massachusetts and spend money.  Each vote in Massachusetts will matter and will be worth attracting.  Local political groups will have every reason to convince voters in their communities to support their respective presidential candidates (instead of mobilizing to send volunteers and phone-bank to voters in outside in swing states).

On the advocacy group’s web site there is a lot of interesting background, including a list of states who have already adopted NPV:

http://www.nationalpopularvote…

Please join me in urging the incumbent State Representative and State Senator to support National Popular Vote when it is introduced in their respective chambers.  When I am elected to represent the 4th Berkshire District I will support this.