The Times from Munster, Indiana • 68

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2000 LAKE Change in Electoral College proposed for Indiana "We eet overlooked." Denbo said. "Presidential candidates fly3 from Ohio to Illinois or from Michigan to Kentucky, and they don't stop here. As a result, we're neglected when it comes time to pass out the money in Washington, DC." With a new system "they'll at least look at making stops here, he said. "The Democrats could nick ud two or three electoral votes, and the Republicans are go-! i i i i ing to stop to maxe sure uiey Keep as many as possible." Gore has 267 votes compared with Bush's 246. Another 25 votes in Florida are still up for grabs.

If Bush eventually wins those electors, bringing his total to 271, the Texas governor would defeat Gore by a mere four votes. At least a few of those Bush votes, state Democratic officials contend, might have ended up with Gore if Indiana had followed "the lead of Nebraska and Maine, because the vice president won at least two, and maybe three, Hoosier congressional districts. "Imagine if we would have pulled three votes out of the George Bush column," state Democratic Chairman Robin Winston said. "Bush never would have gotten over the hump. They rely on Indiana for 12 (electoral votes) not nine." In fact, a Democratic elector hasn't cast a vote in Indiana since tricts, a method already used in Nebraska and Maine.

Republicans, however, are expected to oppose the measure. Currently, all of Indiana's 12 electoral votes one from each of the state's 10 congressional districts and two at-large are awarded to the presidential candidate capturing the popular vote. This year, the winner was Republican George W. Bush. Under Denbo's proposal, the two at-large electors would still go to the presidential candidate winning the statewide popular vote, but the others would be determined by the results in individual congressional districts.

Such an approach could have had a profound impact on the outcome of this year's hotly contested presidential race. The unofficial results show of the 270 electoral votes needed to win, Vice President Al thought about the Electoral College at any length for the past several years." Denbo said he's been considering similar legislation for years, but didn't realize until recently that state lawmakers have the authority to determine how electors are chosen. "I think Florida or any state is a good example where winner-takes-all just doesn't work," he added. "I don't feel it's fair because it doesn't evenly distribute electoral votes." More importantly for Indiana, he said, a different system might raise the stated political profile in future presidential races. The state is normally considered a lock for Republicans, so both major party candidates Spend little, if any, time courting Hoosier voters.

Indiana often is considered "a flyover state." Democratic lawmaker says split of electoral votes would bring candidates to state. BY TERRY BURNS Times Statehouse Bureau Chief INDIANAPOLIS A Democratic state lawmaker wants to change the way Indiana chooses members to the Electoral College, daiming a new system would give Indiana more political clout in the years to come. State Rep. Jerry Denbo of French Lick plans to introduce legislation to do away with the state's winner-take-all approach to the Electoral College in favor of a system that divvies up votes based on election results in each of the state's congressional dis 1964, that was the last time a Democratic presidential candidate, Lyndon B. Johnson, won the state.

Denbo's proposal, Winston said, "is very interesting. After this election, anything we can do to make people more involved (in the political process) is going to be worthwhile. Fm battling Cynicism 101 right now" because of a lot of disenfranchised voters. Not surprisingly, Republicans were hesitant to embrace the plan, calling it a blatantly political maneuver. "While we have a very dramatic national scene currently, I think we need to think carefully before we make a knee-jerk change," said House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis.

"This is a system that's worked well for a couple of centuries. "Not to be he added, "but I doubt that many legislators have Denbo, however, predicted measure could have some tough going in the General Assembly, pecially in the Republican-led, Senate. Td say there'd be a lot of (law-n: makers) opposed to it," he "but it will have overwhelmingm popularity with the people. We 11 have to see what happens. Imagine Your Loveliest Holiday Breast Give Yourself the Gift of Self-Confidence OS EINBERG 761 -45th Avenue Munster, Indiana 219-924-3377 1751 Thornapple Circle Valparaiso, Indiana 219-477-2005 Surgery Fellow American College of Surgeons and Vote Continued from Al County Republican Party Chairman Roger Chiabai.

Both men predicted all Indiana electors will stick with George W. Bush. To bolster the odds of that happening, Indiana Republicans are planning to get together the night before the Electoral College vote, and hold a relatively elaborate ceremony prior to casting their ballots. Assuming the Florida vote stands as certified, George W. Bush should take 271 votes in the Electoral College one more than needed to win the presidency for the GOP.

But a switch by just three of the Republican electors would throw the election to Gore. Several states, not including Indiana, have laws that require electors to cast their ballot in favor of the presidential candidate who won their state's popular vote. But a number of constitutional scholars have questioned whether such restrictions on electors' discretion are constitutional. McDaniel, who along with Chiabai serves as a Bush elector, said and more! (Sot Certified American Board of Plastic Member American Society of Plastic Reconstructive Surgeons biggest boot sale of the season! he has received at least 160 e-mails in the last few weeks, nearly a third of them urging him to back Gore when electors convene in the Indiana House of Representatives on Dec. 18 to cast their ballots.

McDaniel, however, isn't likely to change his mind when he's handed the paper ballot. "As state chairman, as state Bush chairman, I'm pretty much in Bush's camp," he quipped. "Fd be stunned if anybody in this country defects on their Electoral College vote and you could put me away if anybody in Indiana did." McDaniel said that a reporter from a London newspaper jokingly suggested that if he played his cards right with the Gore administration, he could become ambassador to Great Britain. "I said, 'Yeah, but I could never come home McDaniel recalled. Chiabai shudders at the thought of casting his Electoral College vote in this year's presidential race for anyone but Bush.

He said he too has been receiving e-mails and calls from Democrats seeking to persuade him to switch. But Chiabai isn't budging from his support for the Texas governor. Tm just locked in with (Bush), that's it. There's no two ways about it," he said. "I don't think my wife would let me in the house if I switched my vote.

For that matter, I don't think a lot of people would let me in anywhere." Chiabai, an elector for former President George Bush in 1992 and former Sen. Bob Dole in 1996, and McDaniel aren't the only members of the state's GOP Electoral College team being subjected to unwanted advice. All the state's 12 Republican electors, selected at the party's state convention in June, have been besieged with e-mails, telephone calls and letters from across the country urging them to consider switching their votes, all allegedly for the cause of patriotism. "I understand you are committed to support George W. Bush," one widely circulated e-mail message intones, "but before doing so, you should weigh America's national interest.

If the Electoral College contradicts the nation's popular vote, American democracy will face a serious legitimacy problem. You have the power to help our nation avert this crisis." GOP elector Maria Irving, an Allen County commissioner from Fort Wayne, is disturbed by the effort. "The thought is just outrageous," Irving said. "I was voted for by my peers in the 4th (Congressional) District, why would I go against all those people? I couldn't even look at myself in the 'm i. boot spectacular mirror if I did." Lake County Commissioner.

-Rudolph Clay, an alternate DemoC cratic elector, saw nothing er with committed electors asked to change their votes. He would expect Republicans to call -him if the situation were reversed, and the state had backed Gore. "The people who are doing the voting are the people you should talking to, whether you're a Democ- rat or Republican," Clay said. "When I run for office, I ask Repub- -licans to vote for me all the time." rv Democratic elector, state R. Tiny Adams of Muncie, dis- (J agreed, saying he'd personally be offended by someone trying to in-P fluence his vote.

Clay asserted the Electoral Col- lege should be abolished and pres-idential elections determined by the popular vote. "I think it's hypocritical to to people that your vote counts, t. but that the person who gets most votes loses," he said. "I think the person who gets the most votes should sit as president, but that's art not the way the system works. It goes against all things that Ameri- can principles are set on." Although a handful of electors- in other states have switched sides over the years, it's never happened, in Indiana, and McDaniel isn't 1Kr about to let it happen on his watch.

"Just to make sure my from the far reaches of the state, including Northwest Indiana, are in here, I'm asking them to come down for dinner the night so can make damn sure they're nn here," he said. "Then we're going -to have breakfast with them the next morning, McDaniel said he also plans turn the normally obscure toral College vote, which this year is presided over by Republican Secretary of State Sue Anne Gilroy, 1 1 into a more elaborate I complete with speeches and a rendition of the national anthem. "I was an elector in 1996 for Dole," he recalled, "and we had ai our ceremony, and you talk about If a tree falls in the woods does make a there was nobody there. Nobody cared. It took about -dr 20 minutes." Chiabai has similar memories.

-1 "It was nothing. Td drive down there, we'd knock it out by 1 1 and I'd drive back," he said. "This.d thing is going to turn out to something. Who would think back during the state convention that this thing would be this popular?" For his part, Chiabai when anyone even suggests he switch his vote, calling the ef- fort highly inappropriate and insulting. "But nothing surprises me," he -vl added.

"It's something the Democ- rt rats have been doing even before TKfi. the polls closed." i Many GOP electors also are re- "il jecting calls to abolish the Elec-toral College in favor of choosing a president through a popular vote. "I'm not saying I wouldn't lis-1 mi ten to suggestions, but I support the process like it is," said Barbara McClellan, an elector from Carmel and secretary to the state party. Although he supports the toral College, McDaniel said he actually welcomes all the contro--i versy swirling around the process. "The one good come out of this is that people are paying attention to what elections are all about in this country," he said.

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