The Electoral College Survives for One More Presidential Election
By Rep. Jason Murphey
Like the many before it, this year’s Presidential election will be held in accordance with the constitutional principles of states’ rights as represented by the Electoral College. Unfortunately, this important practice is no longer something that we should take for granted.
In 2014, the Oklahoma Senate stunned many Oklahomans by approving a proposal to counteract part of the constitutional principle of states’ rights.
When the founding fathers designed our Constitution, they included an important mechanism to ensure that smaller states such as Oklahoma were represented in the Electoral College by giving each state two Electoral College votes, regardless of population.
In recent years, a series of the more populous states have advanced a proposed bypass of the Electoral College. This proposal requires each state to make its Electoral College delegates vote for the Presidential candidate that receives the highest total in the national popular vote. Had this system already been in place, Oklahoma’s Electoral College delegates would have voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Gore in 2000, even though Oklahomans voted for the other candidate by a wide margin.
To date, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, Vermont, California and Rhode Island have adopted the proposal after advocacy by what appears to be two partner groups, one of which is part of a George Soros funded operation.
Here’s the problem for these groups: the Washington Post opined that if this effort were to be successful, “they’ll likely have to branch out into red states, because there are only so many blue states (and so many electoral votes in them) on the map.”
How could the national popular vote people convince the more sparsely populated red staters to give away their advantage in the Electoral College?
What better way than to put Oklahoma on the list?
If the reddest state in the nation signs on, then why wouldn’t other red states?
To this end, the national popular vote group invaded Oklahoma with a high powered team of very sophisticated lobbyists. They wisely kept the issue under the radar and away from the eyes of the public while aggressively trying to convince legislators by using a series of convoluted logic for why this proposal would benefit conservatives.
They financed a series of out-of-state junkets to various vacation sites where they explained this logic against an exotic backdrop of recreational events.
Having succeeded in the Senate, they then went on the offensive in the House. They planned to finance an all-expenses-paid junket to St. Croix. In this exotic venue, far away from the eyes of the public, they would have attempted to convince Oklahoma House members to also vote for the bill. Just a few days after they return to the mainland, House members would have voted on the proposal.
Fortunately, the public has activated and the outrage went viral. This issue was no longer under the radar and many of us in the House determined to fiercely defend the Electoral College and the founding fathers’ vision.
Unlike our Senate colleagues, we had the benefit of public attention and outrage to bolster our case.
In 2014, I wrote about the St. Croix trip in my weekly article. Shortly thereafter the trip was canceled and the initiative lost momentum. But, don’t think for a second that the initiative is gone forever and don’t be surprised to learn that since that time Oklahoma lawmakers have continued to join out-of-state junkets to hear about the benefits of getting rid of the electoral college.
However, at least for one more election, the electoral college survives.
Thank you for reading this article. Your interest and input are much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email Jason.Murphey@hd31.org with your thoughts and suggestions.
