Democrats Support Electoral College Reform

That's right.

Democrats are on record in support of an initiative to allocate the state's Electoral College votes by Congressional District...in Colorado.

It seems that in Republican-leaning Colorado, it's fundramentally unfair for Denver to determine where Electoral College votes from Colorado Springs go...but when the idea is mentioned in California, it must be part of some right-wing conspiracy. Colorado Democrats strongly advocated for such an initiative just last year: Amendment 36.

One news story put it this way:

Many of the biggest supporters of Amendment 36 have been Democrats, who began working to get the proposal on the ballot back when it looked as though their traditionally Republican state would again vote decisively for President Bush.

The liberals who are busy worrying over this idea need to check with their colleagues in Colorado, Florida, and other Republican-leaning states who have advocated for allocating Electoral College votes by district, people like Democrat State Senator Ron Tupa of Colorado, who said: "I support Amendment 36 based on a higher principle...I'm not looking at the Electoral College math and saying this amendment will somehow or other hurt the Democratic Party. I take my partisan hat off when I work on this issue."

The reality is that most process-related reforms (redistricting, electoral college, primary voting rules, etc.) are instantly evaluated not on the merits, but in terms of who benefits, and who doesn't, as a result. The principle involved is often lost.

The CRP routinely evaluates all statewide initiatives, once they qualify for the ballot. If and when this initiative clears that hurdle, we'll take a hard look at it.