Colorado Abolishes Electoral College From State – Here’s Why It Will Backfire

In an effort to uphold “fairness,” the State of Colorado’s Governor has signed legislation into law that would, in effect, make the votes of their citizens completely irrelevant in any presidential election.

It’s not common for Democrats to immediately try to change the rules when they’re losing. After the 2018 midterms Democrats complained that the Senate was “rigged” towards Republicans, because Republicans were able to hold their majority despite Democrat Senate candidates receiving more votes nationwide (which nobody seemed to realize is simply because Democrat Senators tend to come from more populous States, and Republican ones from less populous). Over the past 100 years, from 1919-2018, Democrats have controlled the Senate for 62 years, and Republicans for 38 years, so I suppose the system only recently was rigged in their world? Who knows.

The 2016 election was no different. Trump won the electoral college but not the popular vote, so Democrats immediately wanted the presidency to be based on a popular vote. Of course, if we had a popular vote, campaigns would be structured differently, so it’s impossible to know how an election would’ve turned out differently under different rules. For example, there’s a reason that no Republican bothers campaigning in California (or Democrat in Texas) under the electoral college system, but that would change under a popular vote.

While it’s debatable which system is better, Colorado has discovered perhaps the worst possible way of transitioning to an electoral system; by voiding the votes of their own citizens and pegging them to the national vote. According to The Hill,

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the measure after both chambers of the state’s legislature passed the bill last month along party lines, with Democrats pulling heavily for the measure. Colorado now joins 11 other states and the District of Columbia as part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

“It is important to understand that the National Popular Vote bill significantly amplifies Colorado’s voice in choosing the president of the United States,” John Koza, chairman of National Popular Vote, said in a press release.

The joint agreement only goes into effect if enough states sign on to total the number needed to win the presidency — 270 electoral votes. The addition of Colorado’s nine electoral votes brings the total to 181.

So if (in an extreme hypothetical) 90% of Colorado’s voters cast their ballot for a certain presidential candidate, their votes would only count if the majority of people nationally voted the same way (or which they votes would be voided). I’d say you’d have to be high for this to make sense; but then again, this is Colorado we’re speaking about.

The other states that are also on board with this insane proposal includes Vermont, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and California.

The bright side is that because these are all liberal states that always vote Democrat in presidential elections, none of this could damage Trump in 2020. In fact, if Trump wins the popular vote in 2020, the leadership in every one of those states will be kicking themselves as their citizen’s votes go toward Trump. How long do you think it would take them to decide the popular vote is “rigged” and that we need to go back to the electoral college when that happens?