Bad idea

Here’s how the conversation goes:

“Hey, let’s get rid of the Electoral College”
“All right. Let’s pass a constitutional amendment”
“Hmmm…that’s too difficult. So I guess we can’t get rid of it.”
“Wait a second. Maybe we don’t have to change the constitution.
“What? How are we supposed to get around the Constitution of the United States”
“Oh… I have a plan for that. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.”

The Register:

“Iowa lawmakers are considering changing the way the state's presidential votes are counted as part of a national effort to break from the Electoral College system.”

Is it December of 2000?

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal certainly has a strong opinion on the matter. "If states that represent a majority of electoral votes in the country pass this compact, we can get a national popular vote without Congress, without a constitutional amendment, without any of those folks."

There are several serious problems with this statement.

1. I assume Gronstal believes it to be a fantastic idea. If this is such a wonderful idea, why has it not been implemented through a Constitutional Amendment during the past 220 years?

2. As of right now, the nature of our federalist system of government gives Iowa a good amount of power (proportionally) when it comes to the Electoral College. The present system benefits smaller states, like Iowa. Why would one of our leaders want to give our state less power?

3. The essence of federalism is more power for the states. For example, if the Democratic candidate won 70% of the vote in the state of Iowa, but the Republican candidate won 53% of the vote nationwide, I firmly believe that the people of Iowa want their electoral votes to go to the Democrat, and that candidate should receive them. Why let the rest of the nation usurp our electoral rights? I’ve always felt that the candidate Iowa votes for should automatically earn our votes from Iowa.

4. If I’m not mistaken, Senator Gronstal’s statement suggests that he desires to make an end run around the Constitution of the United States. Perhaps I’m an old-fashioned pro-constitution man, but frankly, I don’t think we should ever be attempting to make an end run around our Constitution. The only reason that people don’t want to do a constitutional amendment is because they wouldn’t be able to pass it.

We already know that many ideas that are coming from the Democratic side of 1007 E. Grand are not exceptional. However, this idea is particularly unfortunate because it attempts to give the rest of the nation what we alone should have: our votes.