Wealthy Brazilian J. Jorge Klor de Alva is the major force behind the initiative to change how Colorado’s Electoral votes are cast. The current system is winner takes all. Two states have a modified system where the state-wide winner takes two votes, and each congressional district casts votes independently. The de Alva amendment would be the most radical change in the nation. Unlike Maine and Nebraska, all of Colorado’s votes would be split based upon the percentage of the vote each candidate receives. Kerry could gain four electoral votes by only receiving 40% of the vote in Colorado.
Naturally the GOP is up in arms over the amendment.
Mr. de Alva’s organization, The People’s Choice for President, a San Francisco based non-profit, has a shadowy finances. Rick Ridder, a Colorado based Democratic political consultant would not reveal who else is funding the campaign.
Mr. de Alva is supposedly an American citizen. He is currently the president of a Brazilian university and is the Ex-President of the University of Phoenix, the largest private university in the United States.
Many questions still remain about this initiative. It still has not qualified for the ballot yet and it may not.
If it does make the ballot, you should expect a huge fight, with Mr. de Alva right in the center of it.
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.