Beth Gray, third from the left, chats with friends at Montrass Drug Store in Winterset, Iowa, the day after the 2008 Iowa caucuses, the first Gray ever attended. (RJ Sangosti, Denver Post file)
Re: “Iowa caucuses are a poor proxy for America,” March 8 Perspective article.
I must take issue with Rick Ridder’s assessment of the Iowa caucuses.
I am a native Iowan, having spent most of my adult life participating in that state’s electoral process. I served six years as my county’s political chairman.
Ridder’s visit to a precinct meeting in Muscatine is not the norm. Having visited many of my county’s precinct caucuses, I can attest to the fact that our precinct leaders started on time, kept the meeting open throughout the evening, and conducted much more business than a straw vote for president.
Ridder depends a great deal on statistics to make his point. He really needs to spend more time in Iowa if he wants to get a true picture of how residents of that state make their choice for president.
I have “pressed the flesh” of many of the national candidates throughout the years. I have also had one-on-one conversations with a number of them. I, along with many Iowans, may have better knowledge of who they are and what they stand for than many Americans.
Craig Baldwin,Aurora
Rick Ridder’s article about the undue influence of Iowa in selecting our president makes it apparent that the nation would benefit from the National Popular Vote (NPV) initiative that has gained wide support nationally. The NPV would guarantee a majority of the Electoral College to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes nationally. The NPV bill has already been enacted into law in states possessing 165 electoral votes.
The bill preserves the Electoral College, since states are allowed by the Constitution to award their electoral votes as they see fit. Therefore, no change to the Constitution would be required.
Currently, our system focuses on four or five “battleground” states, to the exclusion of the rest of the nation. There is little incentive for a Democrat to vote in Texas or a Republican to vote in California or New York, since all the electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the state vote.
The NPV has received bipartisan support in much of the nation. It passed the Colorado Senate in 2006 and 2007 and the Colorado House in 2009, but needs to pass both houses in the same year to go to the governor for signature. Its time has come.
Jim DeWall,Centennial
This letter was published in the March 15 edition.
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