Editor: I support Proposition 113, the National Popular Vote.
I support it because I want to make sure one person always equals one vote. It is interesting to me that the president is the only elected official anywhere in our democratic republic that could lose the majority of votes and still could win the office.
Proposition 113 changes that outcome within the confines of leaving the Electoral College intact. It would empower Colorado to assign its elector votes in the fairest way for Colorado voters and for the country. As it is now, in our winner take all electoral system, Republican voters in rural areas of our state basically have their votes for a Republican president thrown out and Democratic voters in Wyoming have their votes for a Democratic president thrown out. This would force presidential candidates to campaign in all 50 states. Not just Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
You might not be aware that the National Popular Vote Coalition started in 2007, years before the contested 2016 election in which the popular vote loser won the Electoral College. And I’ve heard the argument that if the national popular vote coalition was in place in 2016, Hillary would have won. Not necessarily. The candidates would have been forced to campaign in every state and the voters in every state would have been empowered to come out and vote. The rural Republican voters in northern California would have had their votes counted and their voices heard. The mostly Democratic minority voters in Detroit, Michigan would have had their voices heard. Suppressing all those votes on a national level would be a feat too big to pull off.
I don’t know about you, but for me, supporting a president that most of my fellow Americans support, no matter if I agree with their policy, is so much more empowering.
Vote “yes” on Proposition 113.
— Bridget Sargent, via letters@sentinelcolorado.com