“The Electoral College seems useless today simply because no one has bothered to use it,” writes Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Vin Suprynowicz in opposition to AB 413 which would require that Nevada’s five electoral votes go to whomever wins the popular vote in future presidential elections.
“The Nevada Legislature, for instance, would be well within its rights to place on Nevada presidential ballots a slate of five distinguished senior statesmen listed as ‘noncommitted’ electors. Should the majority of Nevada voters support this slate, and should the presidential election fall within a five-vote margin, our electors could then meet with the major parties, agreeing to deliver the presidency to that party which would agree to turn over all federal lands in Nevada to state control, or to pay every Nevadan a healthy annuity (plus a lifetime waiver of any requirement to file or pay personal income taxes) in exchange for the state’s acceptance of the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Or both.”
If only Nevada’s political leaders were as thoughtful and Machiavellian as Mr. Suprynowicz.
