Electoral College system unfair to Jersey voters

Assemblywoman Allison McHose’s commitment to the voters of New Jersey is underwhelming. Her commitment to out of state special interests is manifest. Here’s an example: You would think that our New Jersey Assembly representative would try to enhance the impact of New Jersey’s say on national issues. McHose does just the opposite. She’s hard at work undermining efforts by others to see that Garden State voters get a fair shake. Here’s one of her efforts: The electoral system created under the US Constitution provides that the President of the United States is elected by a college of electors. Each state gets one elector for each of its members in Congress. A small state like Wyoming, because it has only one member in the House, is entitled to three votes in the electoral college, one for its single congressman and two for its two senators. New Jersey, a bigger state, gets to cast fifteen votes for president, one for each of its congressmen and one for each of its two senators. Sounds fair — right? Well, not really. Wyoming, a red state, with a population of about half a million gets three votes; New Jersey with almost nine million residents gets 15 votes. Do the math — each voter in Wyoming gets about four times more to say about whom is elected President than we do in New Jersey. Recognizing the unfairness, New Jersey and several other states entered into an agreement to try to correct the discrepancy. The agreement provides for the election of the president by popular vote. It comes into effect after a certain minimum number of states join in. The result will be that the “one man, one vote” rule that applies to every other election in the country (The Supreme Court said this is a must) would also apply to the presidential election. The agreement attempts to even the electoral playing field, which you can see is outrageously tilted against us. The Assemblywoman’s contribution to this: She has introduced a bill, A3249, in the Assembly that would require New Jersey to withdraw from the agreement. She is happy with the disadvantaged status of the New Jersey voter. How can this be? The answer — in this and in so many other things she does down in Trenton — McHose doesn’t put the interests of her constituents first. Instead, she consistently caters to right wing interests. She’s in tune with red state ideologues. It’s the power brokers in the small red states that thrive on the status quo that the interstate agreement seeks to change. Does Allison McHose deserve another term in the New Jersey Assembly? Not if we deserve to have our legislators protect the interests of the citizens of New Jersey as their number one job. Jim Nye Candidate for New Jersey State Assembly 24th Legislative District Sparta