Four states have voted to eliminate the Electoral College and elect presidents by popular vote. Those states -- Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland and New Jersey -- represent 50 votes -- or 19 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to eliminate the current system.
Because of the concentration in the battleground states, two-thirds of the states were ignored by the presidential campaigns this fall. Because of the narrow focus, in the states where there is no doubt about the outcome, there is virtually no advertising, organizing or attention paid to the concerns of the voters.
The emphasis of the candidates is stark. FairVote, which advocates elimination of the Electoral College, makes the following observations about the recent presidential election.
* Of the 300 campaign events by major presidential candidates after Sept. 4, 57 percent took place in four states -- Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- states with 17 percent of the nation's eligible voters.
* Fifty-four percent of all presidential campaign ads aired in the same four states.
* More than 98 percent of all campaign events and spending took place in 15 states representing 36 percent of the nation's eligible voters, effectively sidelining two-thirds of all Americans.
Al Gore won the popular vote, but lost the election in 2000. If John Kerry had gotten 60,000 more votes in Ohio in 2004, he would have won the election, even though George Bush had more popular votes.
There is something drastically wrong with this picture.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.