Votelaw, Edward Still's blog on law and politics

Cox News Service reports: The prospect of presidential campaigns neglecting much of the country while focusing on electoral battlegrounds spurs talk of reform.

Proposals include scrapping the Electoral College in favor of direct election by popular vote. That's unlikely because the Constitution would have to be amended, an unwieldy process.

An alternative would allocate electoral votes by congressional district, a change that could be made at the state level and is already in effect in Maine and Nebraska. Candidates would be awarded one electoral vote for each of the nation's 435 congressional districts in which they win the popular vote, and a two-vote bonus for winning a state's popular vote.

Bob Turner, political scientist at Skidmore College in upstate New York, said that would more closely reflect the popular vote and force the campaigns to "focus on battleground districts instead of battleground states." Three of Georgia's 13 House districts would likely be tossups. -- Presidential campaigns to focus on key states (Cox News Service via News-Journal.com)

An even better method would be a proportional allocation of Electoral College votes in each state. Unfortunately, the "creative districting" that gives us lopsided delegations in most states would also contribute to disproportionate allocations in each state.