All Americans should have a voice and every vote should matter in our presidential elections. The principle of “one person, one vote” currently applies to every election across the country except for our most important one: the President of the United States. That needs to change. It would change under a National Popular Vote system. Coloradans should vote Yes on Proposition 113 this fall to make sure all of our voices matter when choosing our president.

Our current system for electing the president awards every state’s electoral college votes to the winner of the most popular votes within that particular state. That means that in 2016, 1.2 million Coloradans voted for Donald Trump. All of those votes turned into zero electoral votes from Colorado for Trump. In other states, the result was that Clinton “lost” because Trump won slightly more votes. Hillary won the popular vote, but lost because Trump won the electoral college due to those assignment rules

It doesn’t have to be that way. The United States Constitution gives states the exclusive authority to choose how their Electoral College votes will be allocated. Colorado recently joined fifteen other states in deciding its Electoral College votes would go to the presidential candidate who earns the most popular votes nationwide. 

Coloradans will get a chance to approve our membership in the National Popular Vote by voting Yes on Proposition 113 in November. Support the National Popular Vote if you believe one person should equal one vote no matter where that person lives, as is the case with all other elections in this country, and that the presidential candidate who earns the most votes nationwide should win the presidency.

— Susan Newcomer, Fraser