Making it meaningful

By Bill Shein
Published June 18th 2006 in The Desert Sun
Rather than an "end run on the U.S. Constitution," the national popular vote plan recently approved by the California Assembly embraces the constitutional authority granted to state legislators to ensure their constituents play a meaningful role in selecting the president ("Assembly can't pick which parts of U.S. Constitution it'll follow," June 9).

Regardless of party affiliation or political ideology, most Americans are now irrelevant in presidential elections because they don't live in one of the shrinking number of "battleground states" - states currently possessing just 159 electoral votes, down from 319 in 1960.

Under the national popular vote legislation making its way to Gov. Schwarzenegger, every vote in America would be equal, every vote would matter, and the candidate with the most votes would win - the same rules used for every other elective office in the United States.

Bill Shein,director, Presidential Elections Reform Program, FairVote
Takoma Park, Md
IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
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.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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