The 538 electors chosen to represent the will of the people cast their ballots for president today, officially ending the contest between Barack Obama and John McCain, writes Randall Lane for the New York Times. The otherwise-predictable ritual included a twist: a Nebraska elector voting for the candidate who won his congressional district (Obama), not the statewide vote (McCain).
A popular-vote system would never fly, but the Electoral College's all-or-nothing rules need tweaking, Lane contends. "Here’s a bipartisan solution: an electoral vote buddy system," he writes. "Red and blue states of similar size should pair up and pass state laws to apportion their electoral votes by district." For example, New York could agree to allow split voting if Texas does the same.
(More electoral college stories.)