New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation that could help revamp future presidential elections by agreeing to award the state’s 29 electoral votes to the candidate that is most favored on a national level. The addition of Gov. Cuomo’s signature to a bill on Tuesday adds New York to a list of states who are signing on to what’s known as the National Popular Vote movement, joining ten other jurisdictions: California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Currently, the United States presidential election is decided every four years by accounting for all the ballots cast in each of the 50 states (and DC) and then awarding the winning candidate with the electoral votes allocated to that specific region. During the 2012 election, for example, incumbent Barack Obama received roughly 63 percent of the popular vote in New York and was thusly awarded all 29 of the Empire State’s electoral votes; challenger Mitt Romney received zero electoral votes, despite garnering the support of more than one-third of voters in the state. According to the US Constitution, every state has the right to award its electoral votes in any manner it deems appropriate. But New York is now the latest state to speak out against the current procedure and says it will pledge its 29 electoral tallies to whoever wins the popular vote nationally. Instead of awarding those 29 points to the person who performs best in New York — a traditionally democratic, or “blue” state — it will go to the candidate that collected the most support on a national scale.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 00:51:37 +0000
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