and the probably effect on certain legislative races in 2008.
To hear audio
of Paul Stam's speech against Senate Bill 353, click
the link below.
SB-353-Paul-Stam
The House Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform
Committee is scheduled to consider Senate Bill 353
“Presidential Electors by District.”
If enacted, the General Assembly will be
apportioning 13 Electors to the winner of the 2008
presidential tally in their respective
Congressional Districts, with the remaining 2
Electors allocated to the statewide winner of that
same national contest.
While no official tally of the results of
presidential contests by congressional district
exists, unofficial results have been tallied and a
comparative formula applied to estimate presidential
vote within congressional districts, including
results from split precincts. Should the Legislature
apportion 13 of North Carolina’s 15 Electors to
reflect the winner of presidential contests within
the respective congressional districts a new dynamic
in the allocation of resources from the national
presidential committees will come into play.
Incumbent members of the General Assembly may well be
faced with locally applied national resources. The
present winner-take-all arrangement forces national
campaigns to apply a large but still limited amount
of resources to those areas of the state where 85
percent of the voting population resides and votes.
Congressional district apportionment of Presidential
Electors, however, would redirect resources and GOTV
efforts to congressional districts where the partisan
results of national vote and legislative voting
regularly differ.
Under the congressional district Elector
apportionment proposal, based on past presidential
tally performance, national Republicans can count on
garnering 2 at-large Electors and 8 Electors from
winning presidential tallies outright in most
congressional districts. Similarly, Democrats can
count on winning 3 Electors from congressional
district tallies, leaving 2 Electors as toss-ups. Of
the two toss-ups, the Elector from the 7th
Congressional District will probably go to the
Republicans, leaving the 13th Congressional District
as a true “toss-up.”
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