House panel votes to change way electors divided
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 4, 2010
MONTGOMERY (AP) — A bill that would scrap the “winner-take-all” system of dividing Alabama’s nine electors in presidential elections has been approved by a House committee on a party-lines vote.
The House Constitution and Elections Committee voted 7-5 Wednesday in favor of the bill that would divide Alabama’s electors proportionately. Currently only Nebraska and Maine do not give all electoral votes to the winning candidate.
Democrats on the panel supported the bill saying it would make people voting for the losing candidate feel like they also had a part in the process. Republicans argued scrapping the “winner-take-all” system would work only if all 50 states used that system.
The bill faces trouble in the House, where Republicans have enough votes to keep it from coming up for debate.