Georgia has the opportunity to improve the way our country elects its President – and make sure that Georgians have a bigger say in that election – without altering our Constitution or giving either party an advantage over the other.
The Constitution gives each state the authority to decide how its Presidential Electors are chosen. Most states today choose their Electors in “winner-take-all” statewide elections. Under this system, because most states are either reliably Republican or reliably Democratic, they are taken for granted by the major party presidential campaigns. Two-thirds of all campaign visits and expenditures go to four closely divided “battleground” states – Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.
Georgia – the nation’s 8th largest state – is virtually ignored. Georgians contributed almost $22 million to presidential campaigns in the last election cycle but only $6,000 was spent here by the candidates. In the 2012 general election, there were no official campaign visits in Georgia by either of the major party nominees. In contrast, Florida was showered with $176 million in television advertising and 40 presidential campaign visits during the same period.
This imbalance does not stop on Election Day. Presidents govern with an eye to re-election, and the presidential administrations of both parties are guilty of allowing policy decisions to be driven by how those decisions will be received by swing voters in these battleground states. Florida and Georgia have struggled over the management of the Chattahoochee River, and I would venture to say that in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., disproportionate attention has been paid to the interests of Florida’s oystermen, often to the detriment of Georgia’s thirsty human population, in part because Florida matters in the presidential election and Georgia does not.
One solution is a compact among the states for a national popular vote for President, awarding victory to the candidate who receives the most votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Eleven states with over one half of the 270 electoral votes needed to elect a President have already adopted the National Popular Vote Compact. Once states with 270 votes have adopted the compact, it takes effect.
Under the current system, millions of Americans cast ballots that are left uncounted. For example, in California, usually carried by the Democratic candidate, millions of votes cast for the Republican are effectively disregarded. Adoption of the compact would make sure that every vote matters and that every vote is counted.
Electing the President by a national vote is simply good for the whole country. So many hand-wringing members of my own Republican party are supporting Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or John Kasich because our party needs to carry the battleground states of Ohio and Florida. All three of these men would make outstanding presidents, but we need to be electing the best American to the presidency, not the best resident of Ohio or Florida.
Four times in 57 presidential elections, the candidate who received the most popular votes nationwide lost the vote in the Electoral College. In 2004, with a shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio, our country would have faced the dilemma of John Kerry winning the Electoral College, but losing by 3 million popular votes nationwide. Given our country’s delicate status globally, we are in no position to have a weak president trying to govern without the support of most Americans.
Our Founding Fathers allowed states the latitude to decide how their presidential electors are chosen. Georgians deserve to have all of their votes count in every presidential election. It is time to use the constitutional powers granted to the Georgia legislature to make Georgia relevant in presidential elections beyond Super Tuesday. It is right for Georgia and right for America.
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