To the editor:

Unfortunately, the votes of the 70 percent of Lawrence voters who will mark their ballots this November for Barack Obama or Green Party candidate Jill Stein will not count. Their votes won’t count because the U.S. doesn’t have direct popular election of the president. Over the past 75 years, Kansas’ electoral votes have always gone for the Republican candidate (excluding 1964). So, voters who don’t vote for Mitt Romney this November will be essentially disenfranchised.

The 2000 election proved that the Electoral College system is fatally flawed as Al Gore won the popular vote, but failed to become president. To remedy this, nine states possessing 132 electoral votes have already passed legislation (the National Popular Vote bill) which would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally. This system will be activated once a sufficient number of states (possessing a total of 270 electoral votes) pass enabling legislation. Will the Kansas Legislature enfranchise the approximately 40 percent of the electorate who don’t vote for Republican candidates?