Maryland leads the charge for electoral college reform

In an historical decision, the state of Maryland may be changing the criteria for how their electors would vote for the president. Instead of representing the popular vote in Maryland itself, MD electors would vote for which ever candidate won the national popular vote. The condition? Maryland’s revision will only go into effect if enough states pass similar legislation as to represent an electoral majority, or 270 votes. So far the only other state considering the move is Hawaii, making the count—combined with Maryland’s 10—a total of 14 votes. Before you write the whole thing off as a populist pipe-dream, California (55 electoral votes) legislators voted for a similar resolution last year only to see it vetoed by Governator Schwarzenegger.

A CNN article and a New York Times op-ed about the change.

posted by Alex Herder on 14 April 2007
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