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Why Adopt Equal Voice Voting?

It’s been well documented by the media that our current presidential electoral process is flawed. The current fix to this problem that is being considered is the National Popular Vote bill, which will also leave many voters underrepresented because it favors more densely populated areas of the country. The following six points provide examples and explanations of our current system at the national and state levels, and shows how the 2012 election would have looked using the Equal Voice Voting method.

1. The current Electoral College does not represent all voters

The 2016 Electoral College results appeared in the media as primarily only red and blue states. Three states had rogue electors and are represented as gray below.

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2016 Electoral Voting Results

Equal Voice Voting would have made the map appear more blended revealing that significant Democrat and Republican representation is found in most states.

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2016 Equal Voice Voting Result

The Equal Voice Voting approach:

  1. Count the state’s popular vote.
  2. Divide the state’s popular vote by the state’s electoral votes (Oregon has seven, for example). This provides a Popular Vote Value.
  3. Divide a candidate’s state votes by the Popular Vote Value to determine the number of electoral votes won.

2016 Example (using Oregon as an example):

  1. Oregon’s popular vote = 2,051,448
  2. 2,051,448 divided by 7 = 293,064 (Popular Vote Value)
  3. Candidate votes divided by the Popular Vote Value:
    1. Clinton = 1,002,106 divided by 293,064 = 3.42 (adjusted to 4)
    2. Trump = 782,403 divided by 293,064 = 2.67 (adjusted to 3)

Note: A full treatment of the formula, along with multiple examples, is provided in the Making All Votes Count! book.

The current Electoral College system does not provide representation to the voters. Only 37.32% of the nation’s eligible voters were represented in the 2016 election.

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National Voting Percentages

Oregon is used as an example of how an individual state fares with the current voting approach. Oregon had 2,051,448 (80.33%) registered voters voted in the 2016 presidential election. Since Clinton won the state’s election with 1,002,106 votes, the remaining 1,049,342 voters were NOT represented in the Electoral College! Something must be done to correct the problem.

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Oregon’s Voting Percentages

2. How we translate each state’s popular votes into electoral votes must be modified.

The Electoral College is actually effective in reflecting the sentiment of the governed, while picking a president, with its capability to address the popular vote and the state’s voting voice among the other states in the nation. We fail in exercising this strength when we implement the winner-takes-all approach. It causes all votes not cast for the state’s winning candidate to be swept aside and not counted! An accurate reflection of the state voting voice is effectively silenced.

3. A simple popular vote approach does not provide equal representation.

Using only a simple popular vote approach does not give equal representation to the less populated (rural) areas and favors high-density populations (cities). Half the national population lives in only nine states. A third of the nation lives in another 16 states. Only one sixth of the nation lives in the remaining 25 states. Consideration must be given to equalize rural area voter representation.

4. Low voter turnout is a concern.

Part of the low voter turnout can be attributed to voters sensing that they are disenfranchised due to something that is broken in our voting system. They sense their vote does not matter! It is important to realize that the Electoral College is not the problem! It is simply how we count the votes on a state-by-state basis.

5. Equal Voice Voting will solve these concerns by:

  1. Abolishing the winner-takes-all approach within the state.
  2. Providing popular vote representation.
  3. Providing rural America representation.
  4. Modifying how we translate our popular votes into electoral votes, via the Electoral College, without a Constitutional amendment.
  5. Encouraging voter engagement.
  6. Being easy to implement (simple math).

Contact your State Senator and Representative and let them know you object to this legislation. You can find them doing a web search for your state legislators (Representatives and Senators). Contact them by telephone, email, U.S. mail, or by a visit in person and tell them you support Equal Voice Voting.