CBC Editorial: Monday, March 22, 2021; Editorial #8649
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.
When it comes to electing the president, North Carolina needs to go back to the future.
In 2007 the
state Senate passed a bill directing that the state’s electoral college votes for president be cast for the candidate who received the most votes nationwide. Essentially, it rids the nation of the antiquated electoral college without the cumbersome process of amending the U.S. Constitution.
It will give EVERY voter in the state a stronger voice in determining who becomes the nation’s next president.
The 2007 bill, sponsored by Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Democrat who went on to serve as mayor of Charlotte,
passed 30-18. Only a single member today – Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham County – was around then. The bill went to the House of Representatives where it never even came up in the Elections Law and Campaign Finance Committee for consideration.
Joining the
National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which now
includes 16 states that account for 196 electoral votes (a presidential candidate needs 270 to win) would eliminate another now irrelevant vestige of slavery from biasing our nation’s politics. It was James Madison who contended that in a direct election, non-slaveholding states of the north would overpower voting in the South, where slaves (more than 500,000 in a nation with a total population of about 4 million) could not vote.
An electoral college that Madison recommended, with the strength of each state’s presidential votes tied to population (slaves counted as only three-fifths of a person) via congressional representation, would not leave the South disadvantaged because a vast portion of its population was forbidden from voting. As a result, at the time Virginia became the most influential electoral state – with 12 of the nation’s 91 electoral college votes.
The year after the state Senate voted to join the compact, North Carolina voters cast the their ballots in 2008 to give Barack Obama a win in the state as he also received the most votes nationally and was elected president.
Five times in the nation’s history, 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016, a candidate has become president without capturing a majority of the nation’s votes. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush received about 550,000 fewer votes than Democrat Al Gore.
In 2016, Republican Donald Trump received nearly 3 million votes fewer than Democrat Hillary Clinton. A winning voting margin of just 78,000 votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania enabled Trump to overcome Clinton’s 2.8 million margin in the rest of the nation.
A U.S.
Supreme Court decision last year affirmed that state legislatures have the authority to direct how their electors cast their ballots for president – so the state’s ability to fulfill the agreement in the compact isn’t up for any constitutional debate.
The state and nation’s
political landscape is changing yet we continue to hold onto outdated, outmoded and irrelevant practices of the past that weaken the voices of ALL North Carolinians in determining who they elect and how they are governed.
Rep. James Holland of North Carolina was right in 1803 when he said during a congressional debate: “The will of the majority in their election of the Chief Magistrate” must be “the first principle of our Government.” The state Senate was right when it voted to join the compact in 2007 and the time is right to revive that legislation and pass it into law now.
A national election system where the candidate who gets the most votes wins will give North Carolina a STRONGER voice in the selection of the president. Candidates will need to pay more heed to all the state’s voters and campaign more vigorously to win support. Writing off North Carolina because of current electoral college calculations, won’t be an option.
North Carolina must be heard in Washington.
Joining the compact will give the state a stronger voice.
State/
Year enacted) Electoral votes
Pledged California (2011) 55 Colorado (2019) 9 Connecticut (2018) 7 Delaware (2019) 3 Dist. of Columbia (2010) 3 Hawaii (2008) 4 Illinois (2008) 20 Maryland (2007) 10 Massachusetts (2010) 11 New Jersey (2007) 14 New Mexico (2019) 5 New York (2014) 29 Oregon (2019) 7 Rhode Island (2013) 4 Vermont (2011) 3 Washington (2009) 12 TOTAL 196 Additional electoral votes
required to take effect 74
