Colorado's Crucial Vote; America's federal system aims not merely for majority rule but for rule by certain kinds of majorities suited to this heterogeneous nation.(Column)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 30-AUG-04

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Byline: George F. Will

November's most portentous vote is not for president. It is Colorado's vote on abandoning, beginning this year, the winner-take-all allocation of the state's electoral votes. Instead, they would be divided according to each candidate's percentage of the popular vote.

This is a pernicious proposal, and not merely because one of its aims is partisan: if Colorado had had this system in 2000, its eight (now nine) electoral votes would have gone to Bush 5-3 instead of 8-0 and the six-vote swing would have elected Gore. The Colorado proposal, which may be a precursor of a nationwide drive to scrap the electoral-vote system, ignores how that system nurtures crucial political virtues.

Winner-take-all allocation...

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