New Jersey Rejects Electoral College

Copies of the new book titled "Conversation with Chen Xitong" are displayed for sale at a book store in Hong Kong Friday, June 1, 2012. The book based on interviews with disgraced ex-Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong with a surprising reassessment of the Tiananmen Square crackdown has gone on sale in Hong Kong despite efforts by Chinese authorities to stop it. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) / Kin Cheung

New Jersey on Sunday became the second state to enter a compact that would eliminate the Electoral College's power to choose a president if enough states endorse the idea.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed legislation that approves delivering the state's 15 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The Assembly approved the bill last month and the Senate followed suit earlier this month.

Maryland - with 10 electoral votes - had been the only state to pass the compact into law.

The measure could result in the electoral votes going to a candidate opposed by voters in New Jersey, which has backed Democratic presidential candidates since 1988. However, the compact would take effect only if enough states - those with a majority of votes in the Electoral College - agreed to it.

A candidate needs 270 of 538 electoral votes to win.

The compact has also passed both houses of the Illinois Legislature, according to the National Popular Vote movement, and has been approved by one legislative house in Arkansas, Colorado and North Carolina.

The Colorado Senate approved the proposal last year, but a House committee rejected it.

Governors in California and Hawaii vetoed bills to join the compact.

The goal is to ensure that the national popular vote winner becomes president. Democrats who sponsored the bill have noted that their party's 2000 presidential nominee, Al Gore, won the popular vote that year but lost in the Electoral College.

Sponsors contend the agreement would ensure that all states are competitive in presidential elections and make all votes important. It also would guarantee the presidency to the person who received the most votes.

Corzine signed the bill privately Sunday, but spokesman Jim Gardner recently said, "New Jersey, like two-thirds of the nation's states, has long been on the sidelines of presidential races and this measure would help put the Garden State back into competition during a presidential campaign."

Republicans criticized the bill as undermining federal elections.

"This legislation is a constitutional travesty," said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. "It's a back door end run of the federal Constitution."

[bhappy2-2]

Personally I say dump the whole dam*n thing.

Posted by SgtRDS

I agree. This is an outdated method of selecting our leader. The majority is supposed to rule, but the States actually control the outcome with the electoral college. If all states will adopt this the PEOPLE will choose our leader.

[samsel3]

We can all talk about the past, but what about now and the future ? Presently the CNP Council for National Policy is planning your future. This secretive organisation of several hundred of the richest men in the USA put Bush & Cheney in office to accomplish their global agenda. In September 2007 they met again in Salt Lake City. Cheney & Mitt Romney were keynote speakers. Romney wants their backing. The CNP wants to continue their agenda in global market control for BIG OIL & allied industry in the next election. National media outlets are owned by their members. Who will expose them? Who will stop their insanity and destruction of constitutional freedom ? Who will stop their misuse of the military to promote their global agenda? Paul Wolfowitz,Don Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, George Bush, Richard Cheney, Eliot Cohen. Zalmay Khalilzad, Steve Forbes, Donald Kagan, Pete Rodman, Henry S Rowen, Dan Quale, William J.Bennett, Jeb Bush, they are all members of the PNAC Project for a New American Century.

[killtheliars]

hopefully all states will drop the electoral college. Since the cities have much larger populations and tend to vote democrat that would probably mean the end of republicans in the white house. sounds good to me!

[sgtrds]

The only way this could work fairly is if the entire Electoral College was dumped nationwide at the same time. Other then that one party or another will try to get it passed only in the states where it would favor one or the other. Personally I say dump the whole dam*n thing.

[Con Mohrat]

"It''s not the people who vote that count. It''s the people who count the votes." (Josef Stalin)

He must have been talking about the USA

[abbe91]

"In some ways it would make sense to completely do away with the concept of an electorial college and individual states votes. A strict by the numbers vote nationwide would eliminate a lot of this foolish behavior we get now where candidates ignore states they have ''''already lost.''''
Posted by gscotth at 12:58 AM : Jan 15, 2008"

I agree. This is much better than the silly idea of splitting the votes of California while leaving Florida as it is.

[abbe91]

"For all its flaws, the Electoral College usually provides a clear winner of an election while reinforcing a two-party system.
Posted by sanfelz at 08:26 AM : Jan 15, 2008"

The problem is that with popular vote, you need to hack voting machines everywhere, not just in Ohio, Florida ...

[abbe91]

The Demonrats make me sick, they only want to change things when it suits them. LOL!
Posted by thgdriver at 02:22 PM : Jan 14, 2008"

Like in Texas ???

[sanfelz]

The Electoral College was developed as a compromise between large states and small states, just as Congress was split between the House and the Senate. For all its flaws, the Electoral College usually provides a clear winner of an election while reinforcing a two-party system.
No decision by NJ has any force of law and is merely an expression of preference. Mr. Merkt is a hopeless partisan who is unconcerned by State Constitutional mandates when it applies to funding urban education.

[boatdocster]

Quetzal666

Excellent quote.

I was not aware that Stalin was an early GOP man but the US GOP is starting to catch up with old Joe on tactics. Gotta love those Diebold machines!