As diaried by Lucius Vorenius a couple of weeks ago, the Maryland State Senate approved a bill that would tie Maryland's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
Well, now Gov. O'Malley has signed said bill into law.
A quick side note: I knew my home state would produce some quality, innovate legislation once it got rid of Bobby [shudder]. Kudos.
While this law is now on the books in Maryland, it will not take effect until "enough states" pass similar acts. Specifically, 270 electoral votes will have to be decided in this way.
Once that occurs, I fail to see how the electoral college is anything but dead. Sure, there are cases where Marylanders might not be "properly represented" in the electoral vote count (i.e. any election won by a Republican), though there are two factors making that a non-issue:
- The electoral college is not, and has never been, completely representative of the will of the American people. For example, in 1996, President Clinton won 49.2% of the popular vote and over 70% of the electoral vote (results map). While the result was the same, as opposed to in 2000, the 20 percentage-point difference suggests that one does not accurately represent the other.
- In the event that a Democrat were ever to win the electoral vote but not a majority of the popular vote, (s)he will likely be considered illegitimate -- with good reason -- just as many of us, I'm sure, considered the chimp-in-chief illegitimate from day one. If enough states follow Maryland's example, we will never have to deal with this problem.
Today, Maryland has built a coffin for the electoral college, and inserted the first nail. Which state will be next?
Update 4/11/07 12:02 am EDT: Hat tip to Misty Fowler, who scooped me on this exact topic. As she says downthread, the more people who see this, the better.