Forward is committed to allowing candidates to formulate positions on all issues without adhering to a party platform or litmus tests. We also are committed to improving the incentives that drive the integrity of elections and governance. Our Legislative Agenda, then, focuses on bills before the Florida Legislature that may enhance or detract from these incentives. We will advocate for the support of or opposition to such bills. Individual Forwardists may hold a different view which, of course, we will respect.
The Florida Forward Party opposes SB 208 as this bill would erase the votes of Floridians and replace them with votes from other states. In electing the president, no matter whom we voted for, our votes would be converted to match the national popular vote. Thus, the bill makes voters in the country’s largest population centers – which excludes most Floridians – supreme and strengthens the national Democrat-Republican duopoly.
Think about it: under this bill, if no one in Florida voted in a presidential election, the state would still officially support, through our Electoral College votes, whomever won the national popular vote. Whether we voted or not would not make a difference!
Had this bill been widely adopted in 2016, Hilary Clinton would have been elected President. You may have liked or disliked that outcome, but why she would have won is troubling. The answer is … California. Mrs. Clinton won the California popular vote by more than 4 million votes but lost everywhere else by about 1.5 million votes. Her national popular vote victory was really a California Democrat machine victory.
This math reveals the problems with SB 208. Under this bill, presidential campaigns would focus on large cities and states and their major-party political machines to drive voters to the polls. The incentives would be to pay attention to people in highly-populated areas who support a candidate. Forward Party voters, independent voters, and small community voters would just not matter – during or after elections.
There are better ways to improve the dynamics of the Electoral College. One example would be to have half of Florida’s 30 electoral votes awarded to our popular vote winner and the other half awarded in proportion to the popular vote outcome. Thus, there would be a premium for winning yet more than one presidential candidate could win electoral votes in Florida. The duopoly prefers the “winner-take-all” approach as it allows them to ignore large swathes of the country. This alternative approach – just one of many better options – would create incentives for campaigns to vie for voters throughout Florida.
Not left, not right, Forward!
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Suggested Comments for Legislators and Letters to the Editor
- Stop SB 208! I don’t want my vote ignored because people in Los Angeles or New York or Chicago or Dallas vote a certain way. Florida needs its own voice in presidential elections.
- I am strongly against SB 208. I want people running for president to come to my door to fight for my vote. Every election. This bill tells them and me that I don’t matter.
- SB 208 drives me crazy. Why would we give away our right to elect the president we want to all the other states? In Florida, we have our own priorities and preferences, and we should fight to be able to continue to reflect those when electing presidents.
- Please do not support SB208. Amending the U.S. Constitution requires very broad support to be genuinely and sustainably accepted. This bill is nothing but a “hack,” a lazy backdoor approach, and totally disrespectful of the Constitution.
- Is SB 208 for real? This crazy idea was definitely cooked up somewhere else. Let Florida be Florida.
- Okay, the Electoral College is not perfect, but SB 208 makes things worse. We want more competition for our votes, not less. I thought reform was supposed to make things better. SB 208 is a loser.
Suggested Comments for Friends and Social Media Posts
Given how crazy presidential elections have been, many people just want to forget about them for a while. But the Legislature is considering a bill that would take way our rights in future presidential elections, so we need to push back now.
Senate Bill 208 would require that all 30 of Florida’s Electoral College votes be given to whomever wins the national popular vote, not to the person we Floridians want to elect. Let Vermont or Illinois or California do what they want, but I want my vote to count.
I reached out to my state Representative and Senator told them I am against SB 208. Please do the same. And spread the word! We deserve our own voice in electing presidents.
