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Make State's Votes Count

Elect The Winner: Connecticut Should Join Effort To Pass National Popular Vote

Hartford Courant Editorial

June 07, 2011

As the 2012 presidential election looms, Connecticut voters can almost be assured of benign neglect by the major party candidates. Other than a Fairfield County fundraiser or two, the candidates won't be here. They'll be in the 12 to 14 "battleground" states, where modern elections are overwhelmingly contested.

The reason is the "winner-take-all" rule in effect in all states but Maine and Nebraska. Under this system, a candidate who gets the majority of votes in a state gets all of the state's electoral votes. So if, say, the Democratic candidate is polling well ahead of the Republican (a not unlikely scenario in Connecticut), there's no point for either candidate to spend resources here. The die is cast; all of the state's electoral votes are spoken for.

This isn't fair to Connecticut or the other three dozen states left on the sidelines.

There's a way around it - the proposed National Popular Vote. A state would agree to give all its electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most popular votes nationwide. Thus far seven states and the District of Columbia have agreed to join the compact, representing 29 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to make the idea a reality.

Connecticut can get on board under a bill pending at the eleventh hour in the General Assembly. Lawmakers should pass it before the session ends.