Group Files Lawsuit to Challenge Electoral College
Includes former Massachusetts governor, Al Gore’s former lawyer
A group is suing two red states and two blue states to change the Electoral College system.
Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig and David Boies, who served as former Vice President Al Gore’s lawyer in Bush v. Gore, make up the group according to the Boston Globe.
The group is suing two predominantly Democratic states (California and Massachusetts) and two predominantly Republican states (Texas and South Carolina.)
They argue the winner-take-all format of the Electoral College disenfranchises numerous voters and that it violates the principle of “one person, one vote.”
Boies said the Electoral College system leads to candidates only campaigning to certain groups of voters and ignoring others.
“You shouldn’t have voters going to the polls knowing their votes don’t count,” Boies said to Judge Patti B. Saris. “That’s why political candidates don’t come here to campaign the same way they go to Ohio or Florida or other so-called battleground states.”
Weld, who ran as the vice presidential candidate on the Libertarian Party ticket, said in a statement the Electoral College “discards millions of votes for president every four years.”
It is still a long shot bid. Massachusetts Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey is defending the state on behalf of state Secretary of State William Galvin and Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.
The state’s Assistant Attorney General Amy Spector said the system does not violate the principle.
“Here, there’s a level playing field,” she said. “Everyone has an equal chance at the prize.”