LETTER: Popular vote compact a loser for Nevada

Lou Young North Las Vegas

12 months ago

FILE - Int his June 11, 2016, file photo, the sun rises over the White House in Washington. It& ... — FILE – Int his June 11, 2016, file photo, the sun rises over the White House in Washington. It’s an institution as old as America itself, but the Electoral College remains an enigma to many. Only relevant every four years, the construct was intended to add an extra layer to the process of choosing a president given apprehensions by the Founding Fathers over the power of democracy. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Lawmakers are considering Assembly Joint Resolution 6, which would award Nevada electoral votes to the candidate with the majority in the national popular vote, regardless of how the popular vote went in the state. This would be a mistake.

The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College to give states with smaller populations a fair say in the election process. The Democrats are all for change, however, simply because they own the two largest population centers in the country, California and New York, giving them an edge in the popular vote.

Democrats like this idea because twice in the past five elections, Republicans lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College vote. A landslide in these two population centers gives a popular vote edge potentially in the millions, whereas a close election gets them only the same number of electoral votes.

This means if the Nevada vote went 52 percent Republican, but the country went differently, all Nevada electoral votes would go to the candidate who lost in Nevada, nullifying the result of our votes. But Democrats would have us believe this will make our votes count. I call bull. They think if they repeat this often enough, we’ll start to believe it. I may not be from Missouri, but you’ll still have to show me how this helps anyone but Democrats.