[Vision2020] Plan to Divide Electoral Votes Progresses

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (February 4, 2005) Spokesman Review.

Suddenly presidential elections are looking a little "bluer" in Idaho.

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Plan to divide electoral votes progresses
 
House panel agrees to introduce measure

By Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer
February 4, 2005

BOISE - Maine, like Idaho, has only four electoral votes - but President
Bush went there 13 times during the campaign. Bush still hasn't come to
Idaho.

The difference? According to House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum,
it's because Maine divides its electoral votes by congressional district,
and Bush wanted to make sure its northern district went his way.

With a big, colorful map, historical tidbits and lots of examples, Jaquet on
Thursday persuaded the House State Affairs Committee to introduce her bill
to divide Idaho's electoral votes by congressional district, just like Maine
and Nebraska.

"Our votes shouldn't be taken for granted," Jaquet told the committee.

Currently, Idaho, like most states, uses a winner-takes-all system that
gives all of the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who
gets the most votes. Jaquet said that convinces some voters that their votes
just won't count.

Though Jaquet's bill was introduced on a unanimous vote, the mostly
Republican committee didn't commit to supporting the bill, just to giving it
a full hearing.

"I have a great deal of respect for the founding fathers, and I'm very
reluctant to make changes to what they've done - but I am interested in
hearing the arguments," said Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol. 

 
Jaquet said, "People in Idaho do have a strong desire to make their votes
count." The possibility that electoral votes could split, she said, "would
encourage people to get out and vote for a candidate who would be an
underdog in the MRSN - the Most Republican State in the Nation. That would
increase our turnout, and that's good for democracy."

Jaquet said Idaho also has an interest in getting presidential candidates to
address the state's and the region's issues. "We have these huge federal
issues with regard to water, public lands, fish," she said. But presidential
candidates now tend to focus only on swing states, and that hasn't included
Idaho.

"John Kerry came here because he has a house here. He didn't come to talk to
the people of Idaho," Jaquet said. 

Jaquet said when the bill has its public hearing, a constitutional scholar
from Idaho State University will help lawmakers understand the issue. She
said that scholar, David Adler, helped persuade her to revise her bill from
her original idea, which would have divided all four of Idaho's electoral
votes proportionally to match the vote in the election.

Instead, her bill now calls for two of the state's electoral votes - the two
Idaho gets for its two senators - to be decided based on the statewide
outcome, while the other two would be determined by congressional district.
Idaho has two congressional districts; District 1 takes in North Idaho and
stretches down to parts of Boise, while District 2 runs from Boise to
eastern Idaho.

That's the same system Maine and Nebraska already use.

Jaquet said backers of the winner-take-all system who say it gives Idaho
more clout are mistaken. 

"What clout? Let's be realistic," she said. "They're not hearing from our
people."

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they
are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say
about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert F. Kennedy