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Last Updated: Feb 13th, 2007 - 13:09:07 |
Proportional Representation for Presidential Electors.
What is proportional representation?
Alabama has a winner take all system when it comes to electing a president. The candidate that gets the most votes in Alabama gets all the electoral votes (9). If a candidate was to win by just one vote that candidate would still get all the electoral college votes (which is how a president really gets elected) and all the citizens that voted for a losing candidate would have nothing. Proportional representation instead alters this winner take all system to one that more accurately reflects all the voters and not just the winning candidate. With proportional representation all voters would be represented in the votes cast through the electoral college.
What is in it for the voter?
*Every vote cast would have an impact. Even votes cast for a losing candidate will still be represented in the electoral college.
What else could happen because of proportional representation?
*This proposal may motivate more people to vote because the votes of more Alabamians will be represented in the Electoral College. Under the current system, eligible citizens may not bother to participate in elections if they believe that their vote will have no impact on the outcome, especially voters not affiliated with a political party.
What about the power of all nine electoral college votes?
*It has been often argued that Alabama will likely become the least influential state in presidential elections because our current nine electoral votes will almost always be split 5-4. On the other hand, Alabama would be the first state to return to a truly representative system for Presidential Electors and would be able to lead the United States in badly needed reform. We need to lead in this reform and other states will follow! Continuing a poor political precedent ensures that no one will ever fix it.
* Arguments centered around the entire 9 votes cast in Alabama are all misleading. They give more credence to the candidate than to the voter.
What is proportional representation and why do voters' care?
*Voters have come to a cynical perspective when it comes to their votes mattering and rightly so. When hundreds of thousands of votes cast for a presidential candidate count for nothing in the electoral collegeˇKwhat does one vote matter?
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