By Bunny Chambers

There are several proposals designed to change the way we vote. These proposals are being advanced by national progressive organizations and some are now moving through the Oklahoma Legislature. Conservatives need to beware of these efforts and work to educate the public and block these initiatives.

FAIR VOTE: The Center for Voting and Democracy

FAIR VOTE: The Center for Voting and Democracy, is an organization that needs to be exposed for what they are: Change agents for a government controlled democracy.

I have researched the www.FairVote.org webpage and want to share it with you. They want to "fix our broken democracy" and "monopoly politics." After reading from their postings, I conclude that this organization's founders and staff are progressive liberals, and radical feminists with the goal of big federal government control. They believe that the "winner-take-all" elections aren't fair. They support several radical election reforms.

They are currently focusing on trying to get states to use proportional representation forms of voting. This would mean that progressives and candidates from multiple parties could win an election even though the state as a whole is very Republican. The majority rule would be thrown out, however, there is much evidence that majority rule produces stability.

Fair Vote states that, "We are both an innovative idea factory and reform catalyst that sparks and supports change." Fair Vote also states, "As a thought leader and catalyst for change, we are at the center of research, education and advocacy about ranked choice voting ("instant runoff"), a constitutionally protected right to vote, a national popular vote for president, and, most fundamentally, fair representation voting forms of proportional representation."

They note, "When described as proportional representation, fair voting is most well-known for its use in many European countries with party-based systems and a parliamentary form of government." They also talk about "universal voter registration" that would modernize our system and the government would be responsible for maintaining active and updated voter rolls.

FAIR VOTE has been around 20 years, and they want their goals achieved by 2020. Make no mistake, they have an agenda, and it is not one that you and I want to support.

Their desire to implement change for "fairness" appeals to the "non-discriminatory" standards we're all bombarded with today, and to which some succumb in order not to be labeled and attacked. However, we must remember that the change they are seeking is not the change you and I seek, but the change that Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Ayers and other progressives seek.

Five GOP State Representatives were invited to attend a Seminar sponsored by FAIR VOTE: The Center for Voting and Democracy in January in Miami Beach: Gus Blackwell, Mike Christian, Dan Kirby, Leslie Osborn and Jason Smalley.

The National Popular Vote

There is a national effort underway to radically change our system for electing presidents? The plan is to elect the president by National Popular Vote (NPV). The bipartisan organization National Popular Vote has been promoting an interstate compact where states agree to award their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote, rather than according to votes within the state. If this had been in place in 2000, Al Gore would have become president. Only 3 other times has there been a president elected who did not receive the majority of votes cast.

Under the NPV agreement, candidates would campaign in the most densely populated areas -- such as NY, CA, IL, FL and TX, and in areas of high population within a state. Under the National Popular Vote system, a candidate could emerge victorious from a multi-party race for president, having won only a majority of votes in one region of the country.

Voters in high population states will decide who will be president, while the rest of the voters in less populated states like Oklahoma will be potentially irrelevant. Our votes will be meaningless in presidential elections. But, a state's electors would be forced to vote for the person "designated" as the national popular vote winner.

Today, the Progressive movement is backing this NPV proposal under the guise of making "every vote equal." It's an end-run around the Constitution. The proposal has been thwarted in several states thanks to reasonable, rational legislators who understand that the Electoral College is one of the legacies of the inspired genius of our Founding Fathers because it allows all states, regardless of size, to be players in the process of electing our President.

Several progressive organizations such the ACLU, Common Cause, FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy, NAACP, League of Women Voters, and the Sierra Club are backing NPV, as well as many liberal newspapers. The proposal has bi-partisan support. By design, the nature of progressives is to divide and conquer, thus the means justifies the end -- a government controlled democracy.

SB 906 authored by Sen. Rob Johnson and Rep. Don Armes calls for Oklahoma to join the NPV Agreement. We urge all legislators to reject this legislation designed to dismantle the Electoral College system.