'Popular' voting bill gains momentum in Vt. House
Toolbox
By Daniel Barlow Vermont Press Bureau - Published: April 9, 2008
MONTPELIER — A proposal that would have Vermont join a growing coalition of states supporting the election of president by popular vote, as opposed to the Electoral College system now in place, is gaining steam in the Legislature.
Supporters of a bill that would have the state join New Jersey, Maryland and Illinois in a pact calling for presidential elections by popular vote say the current Electoral College system has led to voter disenfranchisement.
The bill passed the Senate last month and now is before the House Government Operations Committee, whose members seem to lean toward accepting the plan during a review Tuesday morning.
Virginia Renfrew, a lobbyist with Common Cause Vermont, told House lawmakers that if they polled 20 people on the street, a majority of them would not know what the Electoral College is.
"I think you'll find a significant amount of people are surprised to hear that the candidate with the most voters does not always win an election," Renfrew said. "A vast majority of Americans, about 70 percent, think the president should be elected by popular vote."
Nearly every state in the nation has a bill this year calling for the president to be elected by popular vote, according to organizers. Under the system now in place, the president and vice president are elected not by individual votes – but from appointed representatives from each state who meet every four years.
In most states, the number of electoral votes is tied to the number of their congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. In all but two states, the winner of the popular vote in that state takes all the electoral votes.
Critics say that system has led to voters feeling their individual votes don't count. They point to the battle over the presidency in 2000 when Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to Republican George W. Bush, who won the electoral votes.
"I don't think this is a partisan issue," said Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, one of the sponsors of the bill. "It could have just as easily been the other way around. In fact, this year it could just as easily be the other way around."
Under the proposal considered by lawmakers, Vermont would – if enough states totaling 270 electoral votes, the minimum number needed to secure the presidency, also signed onto the plan – agree to cast its electoral votes in support of the candidate who won the national popular vote.
"People who are running would not be looking at blue states or red states," Renfrew said. "They would be looking at every single person in the United States." Some lawmakers worried that Vermont's relevance would drop among national presidential candidates without the Electoral College. Right now, three electoral votes among a total of 538 are more meaningful than a state with about 480,000 eligible voters among a total U.S. voting population of 221 million, some lawmakers said.
Wright pointed out that Vermont already gets little, if any, attention from the presidential candidates during the general election. That problem is the state is considered solidly blue – meaning that a Democrat is assured a win and a Republican is assured a loss, he explained.
"I don't think we'll get less attention than we do now," Wright said.
Some lawmakers still were not convinced. "I can't see how this would get us more attention," said Rep. Sandy Grenier, R-St. Johnsbury. "I agree with you that it won't bring us less attention. But I just don't see how it could get us more."
Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@rutlandherald.com.
42