Monday, November 7, 2011

Monday Rule: Eliminate the Electoral College

Presidents should be elected based on each American getting one vote that actually counts.

5 comments:

  1. 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. There would no longer be 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of other states.

    When the bill is enacted by states possessing 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 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 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: 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 small, medium-small, medium, and large states. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions that possess 132 electoral votes-- 49% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.

    NationalPopularVote

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  2. I could not agree more! America's electoral college system is very unusual and distorts Presidential election by making some states more significant in the process than others. I can understand why it was introduced when America was first founded...but now is the time to move on from that.

    On another subject...personally I do not really wanted my country (the UK) to become part of a "United States of Europe", but if such a state was to emerge...I suspect any system of directly electing a President would use electoral college votes for each country, because the smaller countries would fear being swamped by the votes of larger countries.

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  3. You must be glad the uk never adopted the euro.

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  4. Is this the same Bret that invites us to come join him in "reality"? Nah, can't be. That Bret is not a delusional fool living in "democracy" fantasyland.

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  5. I don't understand how my recommendation of a change implies I am a delusional fool living in a democracy fantasyland.

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