Next President Elected By 15% of Voters...If National Popular Vote Has their Way

Rapidly advancing movement to eliminate Electoral College shifts control to coasts

A four-year-old effort that effectively would turn the Electoral College out to pasture in the United States by arranging a direct vote of president by the people is gaining strength, and is poised to claim support from states that control 106 of the 270 votes now needed to claim the Oval Office.

The total might be even higher already.

But that has a number of analysts alarmed, including author Tara Ross, who has written in opposition to the concept of a direct national vote for president at the Save Our States.com website.

"Eliminating the Electoral College would probably mean at least two things: Elections will become easier to steal and the two-party system will be undermined. So it follows that two types of political parties would benefit the most: Those that don't mind stealing elections and third parties," she wrote.

The California-based National Popular Vote has been working since about 2006 on its plan that would assign Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who has captured the most individual votes in a presidential election nationwide – no matter who has won in an individual state.

The Electoral College system now assigns votes by the state – or in a couple of cases by the congressional district – based on the popular vote in that state or district. This is the circumstance that gave George W. Bush the presidency in 2000 even though Al Gore collected more popular votes.

It is being promoted in state legislatures – it has been introduced in all 50 – as a compact among the states in which legislators commit their state's votes to the popular vote winner as soon as there are enough states to guarantee a victor with 270 Electoral College votes.

So far, Hawaii, with 4 votes; New Jersey, 15; Illinois, 20; Maryland, 10; and Washington, 11; have made commitments. As of now, there are active bills that could put another three states in that camp: New York, 31; Massachusetts, 12; and Delaware, 3.
That would total 106 of the needed 270 Electoral College votes.

Ross, who has written, "Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College," said in a National Review analysis that the campaign is coming "startlingly close to success even as most Americans remain completely unaware that the presidential-election process is so close to being turned on its head."

Tom DeWeese claims the Electoral College is an effective way of keeping every state in play in a presidential election.

"The abolishment of the Electoral College would, in fact, establish an election tyranny giving control of the government to the massive population centers of the nation's Northeastern sector and the area around Los Angeles. If these sections of the nation were to control the election of our nation's leaders, the voice of the ranchers and farmers of the Mid and Far West would be lost, along with the values and virtues of the South. It would also mean the end of the 10th Amendment and state sovereignty. "

WND columnist Henry Lamb has joined those expressing concern.

"Democracy is often described as two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Democracy is mob rule. Democracy collapses when the majority discovers it can vote for itself treasure from the public coffers. Democracy is the last plateau of social order before anarchy," he has written.

"The last remaining vestige of a federal republic is the Electoral College, an ingeniously designed system to insure that small states are not overrun by large states in the election of the president. Now, there is a powerful movement afoot to bypass the Constitution, and the amendment process, and destroy the Electoral College, which would transform America into a pure democracy," he said.

"The National Popular Vote movement seeks to get legislation adopted in enough states to guarantee that the president will be the candidate who receives the majority of the popular vote, thereby nullifying the constitutionally prescribed Electoral College," he continued. "The genius of the Electoral College designed by the founders is that it provides at least a degree of check and balance against the nation being perpetually led by a president chosen by urbanites. The Electoral College requires candidates to be aware of and concerned about the desires of all states, not just the states with the largest populations.

"It is essential that the president of the United States never be the choice of one segment of the population, or a "faction," as James Madison feared. The president must represent the broadest possible range of ideas and concerns of Americans all across the varied landscape," he said.

By Bob Unrauh

You can read the entire article on World Net Daily here.