Victor Contreras
I was concerned to read that Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, who chairs the powerful House Voters and Elections Committee, is a proponent of getting rid of the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a gift to rural states like New Mexico.
Most Americans don’t understand the intention and benefits of the Electoral College, and I hope I can bring some light on the subject here.
I’ll compare the populations of a metropolitan state, New York, to our rural state of New Mexico. New York has 31 electoral votes to New Mexico’s five electoral votes. According to 2010 U.S. Census numbers, New York has more than nine times the population of New Mexico – yet it has only six times the number of electoral votes that New Mexico has.
Here’s another way to look at it: In New York, it takes 625,100 people to get one electoral vote. In New Mexico, we only need 411,836 people to get one electoral vote.
Our founding fathers put this system in place more than two centuries ago because they knew that the needs of rural citizens are very different from the needs of city dwellers. The Electoral College gives rural states like New Mexico a little bigger voice in our national elections. It helps make things more equitable; it levels out the playing field a bit.
Perhaps Rep. Garcia does not know these numbers. I can’t imagine any lawmaker in New Mexico who truly understands the intended purpose and effect of the Electoral College would want to convert to a system that makes New Mexico’s voice weaker.
The greater Chicagoland area (Chicago and its suburbs ) has 9.8 million people. Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico together have only 7.6 million people. Without the Electoral College, several states combined could not compete with one metropolitan city. Moreover, using a popular vote system, California, New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas would pretty much decide our elections. No one would ever campaign in New Mexico because of our sparse population. We simply wouldn’t matter.
As it is now, our five electoral votes can be very important to national candidates.
Without the Electoral College, our rural way of life will be silenced. Although our founders could never have imagined New Mexico would exist, they understood that different populations have different needs. And clearly, the needs of New Yorkers are not the needs of New Mexicans.
Thanks to the Electoral College, our needs are heard.
Contreras is chairman of Hispanos Unidos.