Survey finds most Floridians support end of Electoral College to elect President

Most Floridians believe that the president and vice president of the United States should be elected by the national popular vote, according to the results of a recently released survey.

The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted by Florida Atlantic University's Business and Economic Polling Initiative on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Florida.

When asked how they thought the country should elect the president, 68.2 percent of registered voters said it should be the candidate who gets the most total votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, while 31.8 percent favored the current Electoral College system.

The survey results, however, varied by political party affiliation of the respondents.

• Among Democrats surveyed, 89.2 percent favored the popular vote.

• Among Republicans, 46.3 percent favored the popular vote.

• Among "independent and other" voters, 69.6 percent favored the popular vote.

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Kevin Wagner, chair of the department of political science at Florida Atlantic University, said this survey's overall findings "are consistent with other polls conducted over the past 50 years, which have found the majority of Americans believe the president and vice president should be chosen directly by the American people.”

Currently, the U.S. Constitution gives states authority to select the president by instructing their electors how to vote.

Because of the way in which the Electoral College formula works, the votes of residents in the least-populous states are worth more than the votes of residents in more populous states. That's because the least-populous states get a disproportionate number of electoral votes, since each state gets a minimum of three electoral votes.

“Despite the fact that Florida is the third-largest state, Floridians’ voices are not equal to

those of residents of other states,” League of Women Voters of Florida President Pamela Goodman said in a statement announcing the survey results. “Floridians’ voices are further diminished by the 'winner-take-all' rule, common to 47 other states, which awards all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who wins in that state, no matter how slim the margin.”

Additionally, the candidate with the largest number of votes nationwide doesn't always win the election — as occurred in 2016.

In the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton received 65.85 million votes, compared with 62.99 million for Donald Trump.

But Trump won the election by getting 304 Electoral College votes, compared with 227 for Clinton. (Trump actually earned 306 electoral votes and Clinton earned 232. But seven electors voted for someone other than their party’s candidate.)

In Florida, Trump received 49.0 percent of the popular vote, compared with 47.8 percent for Clinton. but he received all 29 of the Electoral College votes from Florida.

Collins contends that the winner-take-all rule means that "the votes of up to a half of Florida voters are made meaningless" in a close election.

The local, state and national League of Women Voters organizations support what's known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an initiative under which a coalition of states agrees to award their presidential electors to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.

Sharon Reynolds-Mixon, who is the point of contact on this issue for League of Women Voters of the Space Coast, said this issue is a League of Women Voters priority.

Reynolds-Mixon said the compact would be activated if states possessing at least 270 electoral votes — a majority of the 538 electoral votes — approve such legislation.

So far, it has been enacted into law by 10 states and the District of Columbia, possessing a total of 165 electoral votes.

Legislation related to the the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact was introduced in the Florida House and Senate for the 2018 session by Rep. Joseph Geller, D-Aventura, and Sen. Victor Torres Jr., D-Orlando. The bills are going through the committee process.

Among other findings of the Florida Atlantic University survey:

• 73 percent of women surveyed favored switching to a popular vote system.

• 63 percent of men surveyed favored switching to a popular vote system.

• People who vote in every election were more likely to support the Electoral College than people who vote less frequency.

• The more voters know about the Electoral College, the more inclined they are to favor it.

• Voters in North Florida were more likely to support the Electoral College than voters in Central or South Florida.

The League of Women Voters of the Space Coast has a presentation available for groups or organizations that would like to learn about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. For information about the compact or to arrange a presentation, contact Sharon Reynolds-Mixon at sarmixon2407@yahoo.com.

Dave Berman is government editor at FLORIDA TODAY.

His Political Spin column appears Sundays in FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @bydaveberman

Facebook: /dave.berman.54