Who Can Really Say?

The My Lawyer's Better Than Your Lawyer Show!

For the uninitiated, in addition to voting for Presidential candidates come November 2, Colorado voters will also choose whether or not to amend the State Constitution to change the method of apportioning Presidential electors among the various candidates. Like most states, Colorado is a "winner take all" state for the purposes of apportioning Presidential electors -- whichever candidate wins the votes gets their slate of electors appointed. The proposed amendment would apportion those electors among the various candidates. Given that there are only 9 electors to apportion, as a practical matter the winner will get 5 (or possibly 6) electors and the loser will get 4 (or possibly 3) electors. For those keeping score, George W. Bush won Colorado in 2000 and recevied all 9 electors. Had the proposed system been in effect, Bush would have received 5 electors, Gore would have received 4, and Gore would have won the election, Florida notwithstanding.

Aside from whether it's a good idea in the abstract to apportion electors, if approved, by it's own terms the proposed Amendment will go into effect immediately. That is, the new rule it establishes will be effective for the Presidential election vote taking place on the same day voters choose between Bush, Kerry, or others. And if the election is close enough for this rule to affect the outcome (as it would have in 2000), we'll be all set for another round of Reality TV show we all came to love from 2000 -- The My Lawyer's Better Than Your Lawyer Show!

Via Prof. Volokh, Politics Blog lays out the possibilities. It ain't pretty. Regardless of what you think about apportioning electors or even the electoral college itself, this is a bullet that no one needs to dodge at the moment, do we?

[Linked to the Traffic Jam.]

Posted by Peter at October 7, 2004 06:02 PM