Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Arkansas voters will lose their influence in future presidential elections if the Senate concurs by an action by the Arkansas House of Representatives. It appears that extreme liberalism has reached into and grasped even the heart of at least the elected Democrat representatives in Arkansas. The term "conservative democrat" for elected officials is obsolete in Arkansas and those who have tried to retain their previous stand as "conservative democrats" are being trampled by their fellow "not conservative" democrats. Now another part of Arkansas voice and influence is about to be surrendered. It began two years ago when a Rep. Monty Davenport, D-Yellville sought to give Arkansas' electoral college votes away. This was defeated.However, the issue returned this legislative session and yesterday the Arkansas House of Representative passed House Bill 1339 introduced by Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, with a vote of 56-43-1 vote. The bill now proceeds to the Senate. Republicans along with a few democrats stood against the bill.
The bill would "pledge" the Arkansas' six electoral votes to an "interstate compact" with other states if they pass similar legislation, awarding Arkansas' electoral votes NOT to the candidate who won the state, but to the candidate who won the most votes nationwide. As an example, if Bill Clinton had won the majority vote in Arkansas for President but had not won the most votes nationwide, then Arkansas electoral votes would NOT have been voted for Bill Clinton. In the last presidential election, the peoples of Arkansas voted in the majority (58.72%) for John McCain and 38.86% voted for Barack Obama and 2.42% voted for other people. Arkansas casts it electoral college votes for John McCain in accordance with the majority vote. However, under the proposed bill, the electoral college votes would have been awarded to Barrack Obama because he won California, New York and other highly populated states.
It appears that many of our legislators are ignorant of the wisdom of our forefathers who established the Electoral College. Rep. Ann Clemmer (R-Benton) who is a political scientist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said it was "Civics 101" that Arkansas would be giving up some of its advantage by entering into the compact, which will take effect when states possessing 270 electoral votes have enacted the law. If Arkansas voted for a candidate who lost the popular vote nationwide, Clemmer said, the legislation would require the state, in effect, to tell voters: "We voted to ignore what you said."
While some representatives will try argue that this is a political principle: "one person, one vote," they are both incorrect and applying this electoral concept incorrectly. They are only read from the National Democratic playbook, not the U.S Constitution and are ignoring Arkansans. People voting for President are entitled to one vote. But in wisdom, our forefathers saw that various large populations in varied parts of the United States should not suppress and abuse the rest of the country in the selection of the President of the United States.
Highly populated states (one may argue overpopulated) already get more representation in the US House of Representatives. The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by a popular vote. According to the National Archives and Records Administration which administers the Electoral College. the people in their respective states vote for the electors (via their vote for president) who then vote for the president.
It was never intended for the President to be elected by popular vote but that the votes by the states should be weighted (thus the electoral votes) thus providing a more fair playing field to represent all of the people of the United States. Only four times in history (1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000) has the electoral college vote not also resulted in the same outcome as the general national popular vote; when more of the people in a larger geographic areas of the US supported a different president than those voting from the highly dense populated areas. The electoral college worked. Much of the reaction to change the electoral college by the democrats is in reaction to the failure of Al Gore to win the presidency. But even in the 2000 Arkansas election, Gore in spite of the fact that President Clinton campaigned in Arkansas for Gore. Bush received 51% of the vote, Gore 46%, Others 3%.
If the Senate now votes for the bill, Governor Beebe, said he will sign the bill. This proposed action has been one of the major actions items at the Democratic National Committee and Gov. Beebe is to tied to the DNC and therefore will not protect the people of Arkansas. Please contact your State Senator and ask them to protect the voice of Arkansas by voting NO on HB1339.
See also: State Legislatures Plot To Abolish Electoral College
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