Electoral College advocate says middle America needs it to stay

An advocate for keeping the Electoral College wants to be sure those of us in states without many electoral votes know that it is the Electoral College’s existence that continues to give our states relevance.

“What’s really important about the electoral college is how it shapes political campaigns and forces candidates not just to try to run up the score in the places they’re the most popular,” said Trent England, director of Save our States. “It actually drives them toward middle America.”

The biggest threat to the Electoral College right now is not a Constitutional Amendment.

“After Al Gore lost in 2000, some smart folks on the political left came up with this idea, what if we just get states to agree to ignore how the people in their own state vote and instead, appoint their states electors, so, basically cast their state’s electoral votes for the candidate who wins the most votes, not in their state, but nationwide,” said England. “It’s a way to really, kind of hijack the electoral college system and steer it in a popular vote direction. They call this the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.”

The Compact would kick in when enough states agree that they would be a majority of the Electoral College.

“Keeping these things at the state level really does help us, in states like Kansas, in states like Oklahoma, be paid attention to,” said England. “Which states are swing states moves around, but the candidates need as many states as they can get. You have to have a bunch of states where you’re already pretty popular, just to be a viable political party and a viable candidacy.”

It’s possible the courts could strike down such a compact, but England would like to see it stopped before it gets that far.