FairVote executive director Rob Richie spoke with Melissa Block on NPR’s "All Things Considered" to discuss solutions to the broken presidential primary system, along with Kentucky Secretary of State Tray Grayson. Rob focused on the FairVote-backed “American Plan,” a system that creates clusters of primaries of increasing state size.You can listen to the broadcast here, and you can subscribe to FairVote’s podcast feed so you’ll always be the first to get FairVote’s audio and video offerings!
[ FixThePrimaries.com ]
[ More on the American Plan for Presidential Primaries ]
[ FairVote's Ryan O'Donnell op-ed in the Miami Herald ]
Papers were filed to place the National Popular Vote plan on the ballot in California in 2008. Under the plan, California would join an interstate compact to award its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in all fifty states. Nationally, the National Popular Vote legislation has 364 Sponsors in 47 States, including California, where the bill recently passed the State Senate.
To combat the feeling many states have of being voiceless in presidential elections, some Republicans in California and Democrats in North Carolina want to see their states� electoral votes awarded by congressional district rather than by winner-take-all. That way, the Golden State�s GOP can presumably deliver a score of electoral votes to their party�s nominee, and Democrats of the Old North can give five for their team otherwise have none.
The Illinois State Senate has joined the House in passing the National Popular Vote bill into law. The bill has now passed 11 legislative chambers across the country since it was first announced in February 2006.
