Will Rhode Island Truly Be Relevant?

We all hear about the influx of television ads, the invasion of yard signs, and the consistent ringing of the door at dinner time when it is time for a presidential election. Yet in Rhode Island, presidential advertising is … well … as deserted as a ghost town. Because RI voters continue to vote for a one party system, our state is overlooked by the presidential entourage in favor of states where voters often choose a healthy balance of the two party system.

The General Assembly just passed a bill, with bipartisan support, with a goal of making Rhode Island relevant in the presidential election. This bill would award Rhode Island’s four electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in the presidential race. Unfortunately, this bill will not go into effect immediately. In order for this bill to go into effect, there must be enough states signed onto the proposal that their total number of electoral votes equals 271 – a majority of all electoral votes.

So why was the Electoral College designed in the first place? The two primary reasons were to create a buffer between the population and the selection of a President and, believe it or not, to give extra power to the smaller states. By creating the Electoral College, our forefathers wanted to prevent larger states from controlling the outcome of the presidential election and ensure that smaller states would all have a voice in the election. And to an extent, it worked. States that have a similar number of electoral votes as Rhode Island, such as New Hampshire and Iowa, still receive a lot of attention.

With this said, if the people of Rhode Island would prefer our electoral votes to be forwarded to the winner of the popular vote, then we will be open to supporting them. However, if Rhode Island really wants to be a player in the presidential election, the fastest way is to elect a healthy balance of Democrats and Republicans to office. We can see the results that generations of a one party system has created; a balanced government would not only make us relevant in the presidential election, but will improve our state as well. Since we have to wait for enough states to sign on before this proposal even goes into effect, how about if we all put pressure on our lawmakers to actually do their job and fix the economy?