Plan approved to give presidential votes to national popular winner

The House of Delegates approved the bill 85-54 after two days of impassioned debate about the country’s Founding Fathers and the wisdom, or lack thereof, of the country’s electoral system. The Senate passed an identical bill last week.

The two chambers will decide later this week which version of the legislation will be forwarded to Gov. Martin O’Malley for his signature. Maryland is the first of about a dozen states needed to form a compact large enough to make a difference in the national election by pledging their votes to the national winner. At the earliest, the compact would become effective for the 2012 presidential election.

Opponents argued that pledging Maryland’s 10 Electoral College votes to a candidate other than the one who wins the state’s popular vote would not only disenfranchise voters who did not pick the national winner, but would also disadvantage minority voters. Del. Luiz Simmons, D-Montgomery County, pointed to the influential power of a variety of minority voting blocks in tipping a state’s Electoral College vote, including farmers in the Midwest, Jewish voters in New York City, Cubans in Florida, Mormons in Utah and blacks in the inner cities.

“You are potentially de-emphasizing, emasculating the role of many minorities,” Simmons said. “This bill might not be thoughtless, but it is not thoughtful.”

But House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, a fellow Montgomery County Democrat, argued for the bill’s passage, saying the United States would join other large countries around the world that elect their leaders by national popular election.

“There are federal republics around the world — India, Germany — that are competent at counting votes,” Barve said. “Do you want to vote as a member of a congressional district … or a state? I vote as an American.”

stracy@baltimoreexaminer.com