Strategic Voting in Colorado

[catscradle]

Talked to a few people here today that are going to wait till the 11th hour to vote on Tuesday. They want to see which way the wind is blowing before they vote on Amendment 36 in Colorado - this is the amendment that would allocate the electoral votes according to the popular vote rather than the current winner-take-all system that most states have in place.

Like everything, there are pros and cons to this, so I'm not going to get into whether this is a good idea or not. But the strategic voting is bothering me a lot. Mostly because it doesn't work and strange things happen when people practice this. So the crux is this: If it looks like Kerry is going to win Colorado, they're going to vote against amendment 36. If it it looks like Bush will win, they're going to vote for it.

This is stupid for so many reasons. 1) If the vote is close, it's a moot point. 2) If as many people are saying they want to do this actually do it, it's also a moot point as everyone will be waiting till the last minute to cast their vote. 3) It will flood the precincts at the last minute. 4) Do you really want to permenantly change something for the sake of one election? What happens in the next election when the decision made now goes against the desired outcome later. This is something that needs clear thought, not fear-based haste.

What I'd actually like to see is the electoral vote going toward the winner of each district. But for the entire country, rather than just one state. I get that going by the popular vote can render many people voiceless, so we do need something in place that forces the candidates to pay attention to everyone. Maybe something like this would help? Or would it still be too spread out that it would work just as ineffectively as the popular vote? It would certainly screw with the nice little red and blue states on the election maps ;)

I'm not sure though. I just know I don't like the current winner take all electoral system, as it doesn't seem fair either.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_darlingnicky_/]

I was just reading the news about voting and statistics. They said how the return is enormous across the board, far higher than they've seen before or are equipped to deal with. For places with polls open the lines are 2-3 hours long. If it's that bad now, I don't want to think about what it'll be like on Tuesday! Point being that waiting unti the 11th hour might backfire on these nice people. How many people are going to get in line just before the polls close either to be turned away or to discover a 4 hour wait ahead of them? And if that's the case, how many will be dedicated enough to stay?

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

This can be a huge issue. Even with early voting in Colorado, it looks as though election day is going to be chaotic. I think those making the strategic vote might wait though - I mean if they're going to be hardcore enough to vote to get their candidate the most electoral votes, this is something important them even if it's misguided. But it will turn people just showing up to do the civic duty thing off. And that would really suck.