An Open Letter to Jon Corzine

Folks, As S.D. is pointing out in another post, our very electoral system is under attack.

As many of you are well aware from the elections of 2000 and to a lesser degree 2004, our presidential elections are not decided purely by popular vote. Rather, each state has a winner and that state sends electors to vote for that person, in numbers representative to that state's presence in Congress.

This was done so that larger states would not have dominion over the course of the nation; in short, so that everyone is represented fairly.

Well, so far two states are trying to end that through unconstitutional legislation. Maryland and now my native New Jersey have signed bills awarding their states' electoral college votes to the winner of the national election, rather than to whomever won their own state's voting. This is as illegal and unconstitutional as it gets.

This is saying that if someone wins 75% of your state's vote, but the overall national vote goes to someone else, then your state's results mean nothing, the electors will be told to vote for the other person, even though it does not represent your decision. That is fraud, and it has to be stopped before our election process is irretrievably broken. Such nonsense may well lead to the breakup of our nation along party lines.

Part of me wonders if this would be happening if Al Gore lost the popular vote but won the electoral college. It should come as no shock that the two states seeking to undermine our free and fair election process are heavily Democrat.

Such is my outrage over this, I had to act.

I wrote the following letter to New Jersey governor Jon Corzine in the hopes that common sense and respect for our nation's laws will prevail. If I receive a reply, I will let you know.

Dear Governor Corzine:

I am writing to you somewhat shocked, and honestly appalled at the legislation you signed this weekend to award the state's 15 electoral votes to the winner of the national election.

Sir, do you realize that this is a direct violation of the United States Constitution, mentioned in both Article II as well as the Twelfth Amendment?

Our electoral process is clearly set up so that regional blocs cannot control the fate of the entire nation. This way, every state has a say in the outcome of the election.

The idea of a national popular vote was discussed by the authors of the Constitution and deliberately rejected.

This idea was rejected not because the framers distrusted the people but rather because the larger populous states would have much greater influence than the smaller states and therefore the interests of those smaller states could be disregarded or trampled. Additionally, a nationwide election would encourage regionalism since the more populous areas of the country could form coalitions to elect president after president from their own region. With such
regional preferentialism, lasting national unity would be nearly impossible.

Sir, I implore you to reverse this leglislation, as it is detrimental to not only the fairness of our electoral process, but to our stability as a nation as well.

Sincerely,F D

- F. D. for Two Joe Schmoes

P.S. I've also written a letter to my representative, Frank Pallone (D-NJ) with the problem in simple terms so even he can grasp the seriousness of it. I will also post any replies I get from him. Admittedly, Rep Pallone is pretty good at replying to me, with Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) responding less often, and Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) never replying at all.

Here's the letter:

Honorable Rep. Pallone:

As you are probably aware, over the weekend our governor signed legislation which would award our states electoral college votes to the winner of the national election. I am writing to express my outrage over this and to ask you to ask Mr. Corzine to rescind this, since it is in clear
violation of Article II of the US Constitution, as well as Amendment XII.

Our electoral college is in place to be representative of our nation. Each state votes in the presidential election, and the winner of each state sends its respective number of electors to elect our President. This was designed intentionally by the Founders to prevent larger states from dictating election outcomes to the smaller states.

Under Governor Corzine's bill, the voters of New Jersey, and indeed America itself, will be disenfranchised. Say for example, New Jersey's voters vote 70% for Candidate A, but Candidate B wins the popular vote. Is it fair, then to award the electoral votes of New Jersey to the
candidate that it's own constituents did NOT vote for?

No, it's not fair, in fact, it's illegal, unconstitutional, and blatant vote fraud.

I urge you to stop these unconstitutional bills from destroying our electoral
process.

Thank you,
F D