By Ari Savitzky
Published July 19th 2008 in South Coast Today
The Standard-Times' July 11 editorial ("Our View: A farce in the House") was way off. Despite claims to the contrary, the national popular vote compact flows directly from the form and spirit of the Founders' designs.
Here in Rhode Island, our Legislature passed this measure with bipartisan support. Massachusetts should, too.
Let's be clear: The problem extends far beyond Bush versus Gore. Under the current system of elections, voters in safe states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island are ignored, while a few battlegrounds decide the election. An equal vote for every American is the right way.
The Founders intended the electors to be an independent group of elites who would choose the president. They decided to use a system of electors because it was the only way to represent the slaves, and thus a deal-breaker for the South. Crucially, they created a flexible system which gives extraordinary power to the states to choose the rules.
The Electoral College system we have today is entirely a product of state law. It is the states that created, over time, a right to vote for president. It was the states who adopted a winner-take-all system, prompting bitter opposition from Thomas Jefferson. To imply an endorsement by the Framers of the current swing-state-opoly is seriously inaccurate.
These changes occurred within the framework that the Founders designed: In matters of presidential elections, the states decide. Our Constitution and the intentions of its creators are best respected through state-based action.
The editors may not like the idea of every American having an equal vote for president, but the public has overwhelmingly supported it for decades, and the states are indeed able to achieve it.
ARI SAVITZKY
Providence
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.