That Does It! It’s Time to Abolish the Electoral College
Nobody likes the Electoral College, but there’s never been any sort of public groundswell to abolish it. But now there needs to be.
It was bad enough when a few slippery red state legislators tried to sneak in a midnight drive-by rule change that would rig their states’ electoral votes in favor of the Republican candidate.
But now Mince Krautus or whatever his name is, is openly calling on all swing states — i.e. Republican-controlled states that went for Obama — to make this change. Here’s how it works:
A presidential candidate would get one electoral vote for each congressional district that he/she wins. Most of these states have gerrymandered their Democratic representatives into a few congressional districts, so there are more Republican districts than Democratic, even if Democratic voters outnumber Republicans. A Republican candidate could win more districts than the Democrat (and win most of the state‘s electoral votes), even if the Democrat was way ahead in that state’s popular vote.
If all of the swing states had had this system in place last November, Mitt Romney would have defeated President Obama, 280 electoral votes to 258; even while getting trounced in the popular vote.
The RNC Chairman said red states “ought to be looking at” the above-described method of rigging the electoral votes:
“I think it’s something that a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at.”
Translation: “We can’t win if it’s a fair fight. Even our dirty tricks don’t work any more. Spewing out one vicious lie after another about Obama; billions of dollars worth of slanderous TV ads, financed by secret donors — and he STILL got re-elected! Rigging the Electoral College is our last chance, our only hope!”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said:
“The Republicans want to rig the game. They know what they’re doing and we need to stop them.”
Wisconsin state rep. Jon Richards said:
“Once again they’re changing the rules because they lost the game — that’s what this boils down to.”
The time has come: Abolish the Electoral College.
Labels: abolish Electoral College, RNC chairman rig electoral votes
posted by Tom Harper @ 2:55 PM
6 Comments:
Obvious partisan machinations like these should add support for the National Popular Vote movement. If the party in control in each state is tempted every 2, 4, or 10 years (post-census) to consider rewriting election laws and redistrict with an eye to the likely politically beneficial effects for their party in the next presidential election, then the National Popular Vote system, in which all voters across the country are guaranteed to be politically relevant and treated equally, looks better and better.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of ‘battleground’ states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just ‘spectators’ and ignored after the conventions.
When the bill is enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.
The presidential election system that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founding Fathers but, instead, is the product of decades of evolutionary change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls in recent closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%. Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes – 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
NationalPopularVote
Follow National Popular Vote on Facebook via NationalPopularVoteInc
To abolish the Electoral College would need a constitutional amendment, and could be stopped by states with as little as 3% of the U.S. population.
At the time the constitution was written it was not feasible to elect the president by popular vote. Now it is. And it is time to do it.
Well we know that the republicans would never let that happen so the best we can hope for is that their party continues to eat it's own and slowly disappear.
Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls
By state (Electoral College votes), by political affiliation, support for a national popular vote in recent polls has been:
Alaska (3) -- 66% among (Republicans), 70% among Nonpartisan voters, 82% among Alaska Independent Party voters
Arkansas (6) -- 71% (R), 79% (Independents).
California (55) – 61% (R), 74% (I)
Colorado (9) -- 56% (R), 70% (I).
Connecticut (7) -- 67% (R)
Delaware (3) -- 69% (R), 76% (I)
DC (3) -- 48% (R), 74% of (I)
Florida (29) -- 68% (R)
Idaho(4) - 75% (R)
Iowa (6) -- 63% (R)
Kentucky (8) -- 71% (R), 70% (I)
Maine (4) - 70% (R)
Massachusetts (11) -- 54% (R)
Michigan (16) -- 68% (R), 73% (I)
Minnesota (10) -- 69% (R)
Montana (3)- 67% (R)
Mississippi (6) -- 75% (R)
Nebraska (5) -- 70% (R)
Nevada (5) -- 66% (R)
New Hampshire (4) -- 57% (R), 69% (I)
New Mexico (5) -- 64% (R), 68% (I)
New York (29) - 66% (R), 78% Independence, 50% Conservative
North Carolina (15) -- 89% liberal (R), 62% moderate (R) , 70% conservative (R), 80% (I)
Ohio (18) -- 65% (R)
Oklahoma (7) -- 75% (R)
Oregon (7) -- 70% (R), 72% (I)
Pennsylvania (20) -- 68% (R), 76% (I)
Rhode Island (4) -- 71% liberal (R), 63% moderate (R), 35% conservative (R), 78% (I),
South Carolina (8) -- 64% (R)
South Dakota (3) -- 67% (R)
Tennessee (11) -- 73% (R)
Utah (6) -- 66% (R)
Vermont (3) -- 61% (R)
Virginia (13) -- 76% liberal (R), 63% moderate (R), 54% conservative (R)
Washington (12) -- 65% (R)
West Virginia (5) -- 75% (R)
Wisconsin (10) -- 63% (R), 67% (I)
Wyoming (3) –66% (R), 72% (I)
More than 2,110 state legislators (in 50 states) have sponsored
and/or cast recorded votes in favor of the National Popular Vote bill.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
NationalPopularVote
Toto: Thanks for all your information. I hadn't heard of the National Popular Vote movement (or bill) until your comment. I googled it and I've got their site bookmarked. It's encouraging that every political and demographic group is in favor of this; so it's not a liberal vs. conservative issue.
Jerry: I agree, it's time.
Demeur: This could be an uphill battle, but we won't be depending on congressional Republicans.
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