Iowa Voter Irrelevancy Act
February 24, 2009 11 Comments
There is a move on nationwide to reform the Electoral College. State by state changes are being made to how electoral votes are awarded. Under the National Popular Vote plan a state that signs on to the compact would award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote rather than the winner of the state. If this sounds like a ludicrous plan, it is. It is a move to strip the voters of small states of their relevancy. Of course if you listen to the rhetoric of the leadership of the National Popular Vote one would assume that the small states are oppressed and underrepresented now.
The leaders of this insidious plan are predictably from larger states that would benefit from the implementation of their initiative. Barry Fadem, the President of National Popular Vote, hails from State of California where he is partner in the law firm Fadem &Associates. His partner in this quest is Dr. John Koza, a consulting professor at Stanford University. In an interesting side note Dr. Koza and Mr. Fadem both advocated for states to adopt the lottery in the 1980’s after they invented the scratch off lottery ticket. Now this dynamic duo is setting their nefarious sights on the Electoral College. Without a doubt the purpose behind this push is to strip the less populous states of the nation of their Presidential campaign influence.
As I stated in the opening eight Iowa Democrats voted in the affirmative to bring this heinous bill out of committee where it is now one step closer to being voted into law. It is now more important than ever for Iowan’s to work together to stop this bill before it is too late, before the Democrats sign away our voice. Here are the eight individuals that voted to bring this ridiculous idea out of committee:
Staci Appel – Senate District 36 – staci.appel@legis.ia.us
Jack Kibbie – Senate District 04 – john.kibbie@legis.ia.us
Steven Sodders – Senate District 22 – steve.sodders@legis.ia.us
Pam Jochum – Senate District 14 – pam.jochum@legis.ia.us
Jack Hatch – Senate District 33 – jack.hatch@legis.ia.us
Dick Dearden – Senate District 34 – dick.dearden@legis.ia.us
Jeff Danielson – Senate District 10 – jeff.danielson@legis.ia.us
Thomas Courtney – Senate District 44 – thomas.courtney@legis.ia.us
Let these legislators know how you feel about their decision to peddle away Iowa’s influence. Email them, call them; just let them know how you feel. And while you are at it let the leaders that voted against this bill know how you feel too, thank them for standing up to the pressure.
Randy Feenstra – Senate District 2 – randy.feenstra@legis.ia.us
Jerry Behn – Senate District 24 – jerry.behn@legis.ia.us
David Hartsuch – Senate District 41 – david.hartsuch@legis.ia.us
James Seymour – Senate District 28 – james.seymour@legis.ia.us
Ron Wieck – Senate District 27 – ron.wieck@legis.ia.us
Wally Horn – Senate District 17 – wally.horn@legis.ia.us
Dennis Black – Senate District 21 – dennis.black@legis.ia.us
And don’t forget to encourage your Senator to remain strong in their opposition to this foolish bill. We must defeat the effort to strip Iowa voter’s of their voice.
This is but another step from representative government to so-called popular democracy. I think it is another step away from responsible government with checks and balances to a mass “what is in it for me” mentality with massive promises by government to the masses.
I agree, Raymond, our representation is being lost and it will be detrimental to small states.
Tell me what reason would the candidates have coming to Iowa from then on if this is passed. You would concentrate on the largest cities amass the vote iowa would be in the bag no matter how we voted. I enjoyed meeting the candidates and listening to them and their ideas. I dont want this to change i would like to continue having a voice and choice.
Woodrow: This doesn’t affect the caucus system. Canditates will still come to Iowa.
Abregar: Candidates didn’t spend much time in the small states of ND, ID, WY, RI, DE, HI, AK, SD, NE, UT in the last few elections, did they? Research shows they don’t buy TV ads there either. The electoral college is not doing what you say it does. Hawaii has even passed this law!
Small states are already overrepresented in the government because they have two senators even if they have only one Congressman..
This is a pro-democracy bill. One person, one vote, no matter where they live.
I say we start a movement to impeach the Democrats who passed this bill out of committee. They have started the ball going to ruin Iowa. And I must wonder WHY are they pushing this bill? Did they receive campaign money to push such crap on us?
These people- Democrats- are thumbing their noses at the Constitution. Let’s not let them succeed. They need removed from from their position of attempted power.
Jerry, It isn’t the electoral college that is preventing the candidates from spending any time in those states. It is the make up of the states themselves. Why should a candidate campaign in a state if he or she has no chance of winning that state. It will only get worse if this worthless pile of trash gets passed. This bill is not a pro-democracy bill it is a pro-tyranny bill. If this comes to pass the election will become dominated by the larger, more populous states.
Why would a candidate want to come and spend time and money here if the outcome of our election didnt matter? This bill would pretty much make Iowa a state that wouldnt matter. The only thing that would matter would be winning the popular votes of the largest cities once thats done Iowa’s vote wouldnt matter as the electoral votes would go to the one with most popular votes. I can see no reason why they would want to come spend hardly any time and money from that point on. They would be hitting the biggest cities in the United States cities bigger than the whole state of Iowa. If you can see this happening then you better take the blinders off.
Abregar,
If this bill passes the elections won’t be dominated by any states. States won’t matter. Only voters will matter. The election will be dominated by voters. Does that scare you?
I didn’t say the EC was “preventing the candidates from spending any time in those states.” Your post claims the the EC assures small states WILL get recognized. I pointed out that you were wrong because it has not helped most small states get any campaign visits or TV commercials or anything at all that would indicate they are being courted.
The EC does NOT help small states. Stop thinking in terms of states. Think in terms of voters. Do Republicans in NY feel empowered during Presidential electons? Do they feel empowered in Mass, or Maryland? Why should candidates be allowed to ignore those voters?
With NPV more people will vote, because every vote will count equally.
Okay, Jerry, I am thinking in terms of voters. Guess what, Iowa doesn’t have very many of them compared to other states with huge cities.
All4Iowa,
So you want your vote to count double, right? How is that different from yelling, “Me First! Me First!” ???
Jerry,
We are part of a representative republic, a greater form of government that democracy because it is a system that protects the minority. The framers of the constitution knew well that great differences in politics were present between urban and rural voters, and even if the urban voters outnumbered those living in rural areas, those rural voters still needed to be represented, so each person’s vote was given different weighting with respect to how many votes it takes to elect a delegate.
The problem with going to a NPV system is that the issues matter to rural Americans will be largely ignored because a candidate only needs to get 50% + 1 vote. It will be far easier to build a constituency pandering only to the more liberal urban population than by having a conversation with the entire country.
We are a country that has many different ideas about which direction to head, and the minority must have a voice. This plan effectively shuts out that minority in 2 of the 3 branches of the Federal Government. More importantly, it undermines the basic tenets of our Republic.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.”
Alexander Fraser Tyler, “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic”