Kentucky may split electoral votes

Two things in life are certain: 1) Kentucky is a politically diverse state. 2) The Electoral College should have been reformed years ago (as the ghastly events of this decade have proven).

Maine and Nebraska are the only states that let their Electoral College votes be split if their congressional districts are carried by different candidates. Republicans pushed for California to do it too, but only for their partisan advantage. They proposed no similar plan for Texas, where this policy would have helped the Democrats.

The truth is, the Electoral College already favors Republicans, and that's why there hasn't been any national reform.

Now a bill in the Kentucky legislature may allow the Bluegrass State to join Nebraska and Maine in splitting its electoral votes by congressional district.

The Republicans supporting it only for California is like if I supported it only for Texas. I'm almost inclined to say every state should do it, but it would be fairer if the Electoral College increased representation for large states. And if you think splitting electoral votes is a bad idea for Kentucky, then you don't know Kentucky. Trust me. You don't.

The strongholds of dissent in Kentucky have been increasingly pushed into the inner cities or the mountains. Even though the state has trended Republican in presidential elections, Louisville (not counting the newly annexed portions) has become more Democratic. A few coal counties aren't exactly GOP bastions either - even after the rural Republican trend around 2000. These areas of course are outvoted by the exurbs that have grown to dominate much of the state.

The exurbs hold the political strength in probably 5 of Kentucky's 6 congressional districts, even where they don't have a majority of the population. If Kentucky splits its electoral votes, the likely result in close elections would be that one party gets the Louisville district while the other party gets the other districts. This at least is a more accurate way to distribute electoral votes than the winner-take-all system we have now.

Splitting Kentucky's electoral votes would also encourage candidates to campaign more in the state by making some of its districts competitive.

The Kentucky Electoral College bill was suggested by high school students studying government and - surprisingly - was introduced by a Republican. Whether it will get past the Kentucky Senate's corrupt Republican leadership is doubtful (even though I'm sure they'd support California doing the same).

(Source: http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080308/NEWS0103/803080425)