Tuesday let's try to stop a truly un-American bill in CO legislature

Our electoral system exists for a reason. To protect this country against a "tyranny of the majority" every bit as much as the usual way you think of tyranny, i.e. by a minority. Part of the reason our nation has such a history of success is the wisdom of the Founders' creation of our Electoral College, which comprises members allocated based on each state's total number of members of Congress, that is two electors for the two senators, plus one elector for each House member, thus giving a blend and balance between population and geographic distribution.

The Democrats want to destroy all that, in part because of their short-term simple-minded thinking that they have the popular vote sewn up for eternity.

More information below, including the great video at the end of this note , but I just want to get this link in here because it will give you information about where to go to testify on Tuesday (February 12th) at the State Capitol in Denver, to try to convince Democrats in the State House to stop this madness:

https://www.facebook.com/events/2333769626852618/

To testify, get there early and sign up. The Committee meeting will take place at the State Capitol, room 271. That's at 200 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO, 80203.

Colorado Democrats want to join the National Popular Vote Compact which would give our state's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote in a presidential election EVEN IF OUR VOTERS DID NOT SELECT THAT CANDIDATE. This is particularly easy to imagine with Colorado as compare to a much more historically "blue" state like Connecticut, just to name one. In other words, It's not difficult to imagine Colorado voting Republican in a very close election year where a Democrat narrowly wins the popular vote. Keep in mind, not that it really matters more than just being interesting, Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by less than she won the popular vote in the state of California.

Here's the bill itself: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb19-042

If Colorado Democrat pass this bill and Jared Polis signs it (which his office is hinting, but not guaranteeing that he would), it would basically eliminate the purpose for Coloradans to vote in a presidential election unless you think that the margin in this relatively small state would decide who won the popular vote.

The Compact only goes into force if states representing enough electoral votes to control the outcome of the election agree to join in. They're getting too close for comfort -- about 60% of the way there so far -- and Colorado should not be part of this cynical and un-American ploy. Once it were to happen, it will completely change the dynamics of presidential campaigns, causing candidates to focus almost entirely on large states. Colorado, not that we get an enormous amount of attention now, will become an afterthought, and smaller population states will be almost completely ignored, which is exactly what our Founders were wisely trying to avoid. To the extent that candidates come to smaller states, it will only be to the large cities, and it will massively increase the focus of politicians on urban populations at the expense of rural and even outlying-suburban voters.

p.s. Some are arguing that this bill would be unconstitutional. I'm not a legal scholar but my gut instinct is that it is not true since the Constitution gives wide latitude to states to determine how their electoral votes get allocated. Indeed, note that not all states follow the winner-take-all method that most voters assume to be the case.

p.p.s. Only five times in US history has the loser of the national popular vote won the Electoral College, and of those five, three were in the 19th century. Actually, in the first of the five, in 1824, it's not actually clear that the winner didn't win the popular vote, so let's call it 4 1/2.


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content