On Monday, Rob Richie, Executive Director of Fairvote, spoke about the Electoral College at the National Archives.

He spent most of his time speaking about the failings of the Electoral College. Richie argued that having the Electoral College only allows citizens to vote for their Electoral delegates, and not directly for the presidential candidates, an effect that is not only problematic but fundamentally backwards. Given that 70% of Americans today support popular elections, we ought to be taking measures to ensure that the popular vote is what counts in determining the winning presidential candidate.

The Vermont House of Representatives passed the National Popular Vote bill today by a vote of 77-35. Once ratified by enough states to form a majority in the Electoral College, this plan will ensure that the candidate for president who wins the most votes in all 50 states would be elected president.

This bill has already passed the Vermont Senate so it now goes to the Governor. Congratulations to the folks at Common Cause Vermont as well as to Rep. Chris Pearson who not only championed the bill in Vermont but is traveling to states across the country to explain the NPV agreement.

(Maybe they read my post from yesterday and got worried about how climate change would impact the skiing and maple syrup!)

Read here for updates on how this plan is moving in other states.

The news on global climate change keeps getting worse, yet it has not become major topic for presidential candidates.

Climate scientist Jim Hansen (of the Goddard/NASA Institute for Space Studies) and other climatoligists are telling the world that we have already exceeded the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that could be considered safe:

If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.

The scientists say that we need to take very serious measures very soon:

Present policies, with continued construction of coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture, suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must begin to move now toward the era beyond fossil fuels. Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions, for just another decade, practically eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects.

While Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain all talk about the need to do something to reduce emissions, none of the proposals they support (such as reducing emissions by 85% by 2050) come close to what Jim Hansen and other scientists are now telling us will be necessary. Even Al Gore didn't spend much time talking about global warming when he was running for president.

The quest to reform the Electoral College and acheive a national popular vote for the President of the United States has taken another step forward, this time in New York.

Calfornia and Colorado have already passed the bill, and the legislation has been introduced (and in some places, in committee) in a handful of other states. It's a slow process, but one by one states are giving the issue careful consideration.

David Broder, the political reporter and columnist for the WaPo, argues today against a proposal for direct election of the president. Here's his column and here's some info about the proposal.

Broder argues that under the current system voters are not deprived of information about the campaigns. But this is a straw man -- the real issue is not whether people will have access to news about the campaigns, but whether they will have a vote that matters -- outside of the shrinking number of battleground states, the vote is foreordained.

Broder: The reality is that small states now get ignored as much as big states like New York or Texas.

more on Broder....