Colorado HB 1299 is an extremely dangerous piece of legislation written in part by Democrat Representative Andy Kerr. In essence it would remove Colorado’s current system of awarding our Electoral College votes to the winner of the majority of the people of Colorado, and instead, award our Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
There are obviously many terrible things wrong with this piece of legislation. Let me create a list to highlight a few.
First, it circumvents our national Constitution. Our founding fathers did not come up with the idea of the Electoral College overnight. This was something that was hashed out over many weeks and several debates. They wanted to give smaller states some pull in presidential elections, so that they would not get run over by bigger states. I say, if our founding fathers, who were much smarter than most people I know, thought it a good idea, we should leave it alone.
If this passes, Colorado will be one of the only a few states that has this legislation. This would render Colorado’s importance in any future elections impotent. Our interests and needs will cease to matter to Washington.
Probably the most egregious insult is that the people of Colorado actually voted overwhelming against this type of legislation in 2004 in the form of Amendment 36.
People intent on destroying the Electoral College have not stopped with the state of Colorado. What I find interesting, however, is that you won’t find them wanting to break up the Electoral votes of solidly blue states, such as California or New York. Why isn’t there a big rush to implement these same types of measures in the big blue states?
The biggest argument that proponents of this disaster proclaim is that “every vote should count.” However, purporting this argument will send one on a logical quagmire. For if they truly believed in the legitimacy of everybody’s vote, then they will have to accept the votes of 65% of Coloradans who voted against changing the Electoral College! Their motivation cannot logically be about the will of the people.
If you believe in the integrity of our national Constitution and if you believe in the will of the Colorado citizens, then I encourage you to call Ritter’s office to tell him to veto this bill when it gets to his desk.
Bill Ritter, Governor
136 State Capitol
Denver, CO 80203-1792
Phone (303) 866-2471
Fax (303) 866-2003
Email Governor’s spokesman evan.dreyer@state.co.us
To read more on this issue go to: http://blog.amyolivershow.com/
