The problems created by our presidential election system are intensifying:
- Outside of the small group of swing states, voters don’t matter to the presidential campaigns.
- The risk of a 2nd place candidate winning has shifted from “black swan” to systemic.
- The Supreme Court may rule that presidential electors are free to vote as they choose.
- We continue to ignore other major risks like another Florida-style recount, or the decision getting “thrown to the House,” which could create a stalemate or give final say to the minority party in the House.
The leading solutions wont necessarily work:
- The National Popular Vote Compact could fall short in purple and red states, and could be opposed by the Supreme Court. It is also politically divisive and potentially unstable.
- Maine/Nebraska-style allocation of electors by district injects gerrymandering into the presidential election and does not create a true national campaign.
We need new thinking:
Election Reformers Network is helping to promote The Top-2 Proportional Allocation Amendment:
- To end winner-take-all (which causes most of the problem and is not in the Constitution), states are required to allocate their electoral votes proportionally to the top two vote-getters in the state.
- The proportional calculation is carried out to the right of the decimal point – this means fractional electoral votes are available in every state for every candidate, creating a true national campaign.
- Significantly reduces the impact of a “spoiler candidate.”
- Elections remain state-based; there is no pooling of results across state lines, and states can easily add in ranked choice voting or other innovations as they see fit.
- No change in the number of electors per state.
- Fixes “black swan” problems like “Thrown to the House” and the time-frame for resolving disputes.
To learn more, download this presentation, or see this January 2020 article.