This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
With the presidential campaigns in their final weeks (thankfully), candidates are honing in on the too-close-to-call states whose electoral votes could tip the election either way: Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado, Virginia and Nevada.
Voters in those states hear a lot from the candidates in visits, TV commercials and phone calls. And their interests are determining where the candidates stand.
But here in Utah, with our solid six Republican electoral votes, no one pays any attention to what we think. That may be acceptable for a backwater place like Utah, but what about the 23 million eligible voters in California?
If candidates campaigned in our largest state as they do in its dinky neighbor, Nevada, they could swing more votes than all the swing votes in the all swing states.
But even that wouldn't put California in play, so they ignore its voters.
If we had direct election of our president, voters everywhere would matter equally, and candidates would run true national elections that sought every voter's approval.
In a close race, getting more Democrats or Republicans to vote in even low-voter-turnout Utah would matter. Imagine that.
Our nationwide office should be decided nationally. Abolish the Electoral College.
Anthony Malone
Salt Lake City