Letter to the Editor - Lakeville Journal - 3-15-18

A more fair way to elect the president

We here in Connecticut have an opportunity to be part of reforming the way we elect the president of the United States by joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). The Compact makes the election of the president like the election for any other office, by popular vote. It ensures that everyone’s vote matters equally.  It doesn’t abolish the Electoral College.

I first heard of the NPVIC during the 2016 presidential election, also the first time both my son and my daughter were old enough to vote for a president.  I, as a parent, saw it all through their eyes — from the campaigning to the final outcome — as if I were experiencing it for the first time, and not just accepting it as “how we do things.”

What I saw was this:  The current system for picking the president, the Electoral College with its state winner-take-all-statutes, isn’t fair. This was especially evident to a Connecticut resident.  

Beginning on the campaign trail, it felt as if we in Connecticut were spectators, watching the election play out in other states such as New Hampshire or Wisconsin. In fact, we were. Of the nearly 400 presidential campaign events during the 2016 general election, 94 percent were held in 12 states; only one was in Connecticut.

In addition, it seemed as if votes in some states counted or mattered more. In fact, the Electoral College, as it operates today, awards more voting power to people in small states. It takes two-and-a-half Connecticut votes to equal one vote in Wyoming. If California had an equal number of electoral votes to people as Wyoming does, it would have 229, not the 55 it has.  

As Election Day approached, I saw the importance of voting grow for both my son and daughter. It was a hotly contested and divisive race. By voting, they had a personal stake in the outcome.  But did their votes in Connecticut matter the same as votes cast in Michigan or Pennsylvania? It became apparent that presidential elections were won or lost in other states, the “battleground” states, currently 11 or so states.

The NPVIC is a proposal to elect the president by the national popular vote in all 50 states and it would make one-person one-vote a reality. The power of a vote would not depend on where you lived, Connecticut votes would matter as much as other votes.

To date, 10 states plus Washington, D.C., have joined the NPVIC, representing 165 electoral votes. States that join the NPVIC pledge to give all of their electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states, not in their state alone. The Compact comes in force once it has been adopted by states that collectively have 270 electoral votes, the number needed to elect the president.

Learn more at  www.democracyawakensct.org/one-person-one-vote, go to www.national-popular-vote.com/Campaign/CT/CT0 to look up your Connecticut state legislators and to ask them to pass the National Popular Vote bill (HB 5421) in the 2018 session.

Helen Baldwin

Lakeville