The founding fathers created the electoral system, because in the final analysis, they didn't really trust the common man. Originally, electoral delegates were not obligated to follow the results of the general election. It is long past time to dump this archic impediment.

Well written analysis of the issue of possible changes in the allocation of votes. Whether one agrees or disagrees, it gives a reasonable analysis.

This is not the first story I've seen on this topic since I'm a political activist and live in California. But I thought Richie did a good job of giving possible solutions, showing the actual impact the law would have using the 2000 presidential vote as an example, and relating it to the bigger picture of people's sense of unfairness with our current electoral college system.

Though I agree with the author's point of view, I don't feel that the reasons for dividing electoral votes were well presented. This story is important to our democracy, and not enough attention is being paid to this issue nationally. Here we go again!!!

The author seems ignorant of history: gerrymandering was not invented by Tom Delay, and in fact the Texas districting discussed by the author of this opinion piece was not nearly as bad as many other recent redistricting actions by both parties. The author seems unaware that Texas is a Republican state, having elected a Republican as governor by significant margins in every election from 1994 to the present. It should have a majority of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. The author is likewise unaware that Maine and Nebraska already allocate one Electoral College vote to the winner in each of their Congressional Districts. The plan advanced by the author, the national plurality plan, would likely result a ... More »

I see people rating the policy more than the story. The article is succinct with the issue. The story never said gerrymandering was invented by Tom Delay; nor did it say it was abused by him. Gerrymandering is done by both parties after a census. Tom Delay did take the abuse to a new level. I agree with the author that the electoral college should be eliminated. Gerrymandering should also be eliminated or have stricter rules that is fair to all parties and, especially, to the population.

This is actually a much fairer proposal in that it allocates electoral votes by who wins a congressional district than some of the other proposals out there. For example, in my home state of North Carolina, there is a serious proposal by DEMOCRATS to give the state's electoral votes to whomever wins the nationwide popular vote regardless of how the state voted. If you want to talk about disenfranchising voters, let's talk about the NC Democrats proposal.