Colorado's Plan to Democratize Presidential Elections

The Electoral College has long been a controversial feature of the United States government. The winner-take-all system for each state allows for the possibility of the victor receiving fewer votes than his opponent. This has happened a couple of times throughout American history, most recently in 2000 when George W. Bush won the election despite losing the popular vote to Al Gore, but it also happened in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland.

Isn't having a president win an election despite receiving less popular support undemocratic? That's the question Colorado legislators have been asking recently. The state has proposed Amendment 36, which would allow for the splitting of Colorado's nine electoral votes. Thus if a candidate wins Colorado by a small margin, he would receive five electoral votes to his opponent's four. This would be an attempt to make the process more democratic as the final vote count would be more representative of what the people want.

There are, however, several setbacks to this proposal. If one state splits their votes and the other forty-nine do not, the election becomes even less democratic. For example, winning in Colorado by a small margin would give a candidate five votes and his opponent four, while winning in another state would give a candidate all of the state's votes. The other setback with this proposal is campaigning. Although this election is close, will either Kerry or Bush care about Colorado if the proposal goes through? It's a swing state and it will be close regardless of who wins, so is one electoral vote really worth time and money that could be spent on Florida's twenty-seven votes or Ohio's twenty?

While Colorado's proposal is impractical for the upcoming election, it could set a precedent for other states to follow. For the vote-splitting idea to work, a very large majority, if not all of the states would have to follow it. That way, all states would award their votes in the same manner and campaigning would be equally important in every state. If all fifty states adhere to this policy, our presidential elections would be decided by the people more than ever before. Isn't that what democracy is all about?

Works Consulted
Johnson, Kirk. "Colorado to Consider Splitting Electoral College Votes." The New York Times 19 Sept. 2004. 19 Sept. 2004 .
Sabato, Larry J. Get in the Booth!: A Citizen’s Guide to the 2004 Election. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.