A hypothetical EC reform idea.

[forgotmylogin]

What if every state had a potential 100 electoral college votes, but they can only use a percentage based on voter turnout?

The idea is this negates voter suppression.

If Illinois has a 12% voter turnout, the winner of the state gets 12 EC votes.
If Arkansas has an 8% voter turnout, the winner of the state gets 8 EC votes.

I also think that voting day should be voting week, from Nov 1-8 including the weekend. Along with specialized polling places, voting may be accomplished in any local City Hall/Courthouse, and at at least one post office within every zip code.

[NCTraveler]

1. This would not work.

"If Illinois has a 12% voter turnout, the winner of the state gets 12 EC votes.
If Arkansas has an 8% voter turnout, the winner of the state gets 8 EC votes."

I do find your overall thought to be interesting. That metric itself wouldn't work.

[forgotmylogin]

4. I agree that it's not perfect.

But if a state does GOTV and can get 50% of the populace to turn out, I kind of like the idea that they get rewarded for being involved. The more people vote, the more likely of a realistic result. Especially if people have a whole week to vote and can do it on their normal trip to the post office.

Has any state ever turned out at 50%?

Would it work better if the EC split for percentage of votes?

If 1000 people vote and it's a 10% turnout:

500 vote for Candidate A
400 vote for Candidate B
100 vote for the green party

So it's 50/40/10 %, so the 10 EV for 10% turnout are similarly split percentage-wise: A-5, B-4, C-1

In a smaller state where the same 1000 is 20% voter turnout - 200A, 800B, EV would go A-4, B-16

In this hypothetical 2-state country, the EC totals would be A-9, B-20, C-1 - from 30 EV, B wins by 66% margin, 1200 to 700 to 100 PV.

Or is this just an overly-complicated version of popular vote?

[texasmomof3]

2. so that is a start...

That would help negate voter suppression. However let's take a small state like Rhode Island. What if they had 50% turnout. Should they get 50 votes compared to California who let's say has 28% turnout and they only get 28 votes? That kills any hope of the popular vote having a larger impact which is ultimately what I would like to see.

Maybe the answer is to keep the EC but to change the formula. Maybe it could be based on the population plus a turnout % of some kind?

I get the original logic behind the EC. I do have a problem with 1 or 2 states deciding the presidency for the entire country which is what will happen should be go totally by the popular vote. Texas is one of those states and we are at the moment red. So would it be fair because we have far more conservative votes in this state to speak for some of the smaller north eastern states? Would you want Texas conservative values to factor in that much? I don't. Not as long as it is red. I think ultimately if it is based just on popular vote you would see massive changes in the number of votes cast in some smaller states both red and blue. Why vote if CA, NY, and TX outweigh the rest of the country by themselves or close to it. I think of some very blue states that could potentially drop in huge numbers because why vote? CA and NY have your back. We want every single blue vote to matter and understand how important to the future of our country they are.

I think we must first investigate the fraud, the hacking and how to NEVER let that happen again. Next we have to change the EC. It just doesn't work the way it is.

[Johnathan146]

3. So if wyoming and CA have the same turnout, they get the same votes?

[forgotmylogin]

5. I would say yes...

since you're polling half of the state in each case.

I do think it works better if the EC per state are split percentage-wise by vote.

I can see though that in a situation where one candidate is more popular, the other side could sabotage them by sitting out.

[Johnathan146]

7. Since the republicans tend to win more (but smaller) states

I would assume this would have the effect of making it much easier for a republican to win. Also wyoming even with 100% turnout should not get more votes than california.

[Garrett78]

9. But half of CA and half of WY are 2 completely different things.

Not only in terms of size but also in terms of demographics. One is much, much more representative of the US than the other.

[mtnsnake]

6. It doesn't need reform. It needs to be abolished in favor of the only logical solution

Whoever wins the popular vote should win, period.

[libtodeath]

8. Terrible idea as states with low populations would be even easier to cheat and stuff the ballot box

to give a high turnout percent.