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Politics would be silenced with bill

By Staff | Mar 4, 2011

There is troubling legislation pending in the House of Delegates that would force West Virginia to cast its electoral votes for president according to the national popular vote, whatever it might be and no matter for whom the majority of West Virginians want to become president.

House Bill 2378 has been wrongly touted as good for West Virginia when it is only good for New York, California and Massachusetts and other big states some of whose voters don’t even know that we exist.

Because West Virginia is one of the smallest states, voice in presidential politics would be silenced if HB 2378 became law.

Under the current law, West Virginia’s five presidential electors are bound to vote for the candidate who receives the support of the majority of West Virginia’s voters. Our current law puts West Virginia voters first, not the voters of Michigan or Texas.

In 2008, John McCain defeated Barack Obama in West Virginia by 13 percentage points. If HB 2378 had been the law then, Mr. Obama would have received our state’s five elector votes.

How would that result have put West Virginia first?

As a former Secretary of State, I believe that hundreds of thousands of West Virginians would be shocked and upset if HB 2378 were passed into law. As a candidate for governor, I am only for putting West Virginia first, and not last.

If the Legislature enacted HB 2378 and I was governor, I would veto it.