Colorado revives attempts to shift electoral college

Remember eight-and-a-half years ago, when President George W. Bush edged out Democrat Al Gore, thanks to the Electoral College?

A bill at the state Capitol is aimed at preventing that from happening again.

House Bill 1299, by Rep. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, would grant all of Colorado's nine electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote. Currently, electoral votes are typically given to whoever wins the popular vote in the state.

The measure was approved on a straight party-line vote and now heads to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

Bush beat Gore in 2000 despite losing the popular vote nationwide by just over half a million votes, out of more than 100 million votes cast.

This is possible only because of the "winner-take-all" system currently in place: If a candidate loses a high number of states by wide margins but wins key states by slim margins, then he could win the presidency without having a majority of the votes in the country. In fact, it's happened four times since the birth of the U.S. - in 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000.

"Every vote for president by each and every American should count equally," Kerr said. "Whoever receives the most votes for president in all 50 states should become president."

Kerr said the move is perfectly legal, since the U.S. Constitution grants the states the right to decide independently how their electoral votes are divvied up.

And he also pointed out that Nebraska and Maine allocate their electoral votes by congressional district, instead of by a total statewide basis as the other 48 states currently do.

The bill would take effect, however, only if a number of other states follow suit. For Kerr's measure to kick in, enough states would have to sign on to give at least 270 electoral votes to a presidential candidate. That's how many it takes to win the presidency.

Currently, only four states have enacted such laws: Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Maryland. Combined with Colorado, that would be only 59 electoral votes.

Former state Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, ran the same bill twice during his time in the Legislature, and it even passed the Senate in 2007 before dying in the House.

Kerr cited a December 2008 poll that found 68 percent of Coloradans support such a change.

But still, several Republicans voiced concerns over the proposed change.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," said Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs. "I'm not sure what the problem is here."

Rep. Bob Gardner, also a Colorado Springs Republican, said he believes such a switch is so "fundamental" that it should go to a vote of the people. An amendment he offered to put the idea on the ballot failed.