Years ago I did a post about the electoral college and why we need to get rid of it and go to national popular vote. I have nothing good to say about the EC and I believe it cheats the people from being the sole deliverer of a candidate……I am not alone….there are many of us that want to see a better democracy than we have now……
There is a national attempt to eliminate the EC….it is called National Popular Vote Compact……..and Rhode Island has become the latest location to do what they can to eliminate the EC…..
From Think Progress…….
Both houses of the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to add their state to the National Popular Vote Compact, a plan to effectively abolish the Electoral College and ensure that the winner of the popular vote becomes president in future elections. The bill now moves to Gov. Lincoln Chafee (D), who says he supports it.
Under the compact, states whose total votes equal at least 270 electoral votes — the amount necessary to elect the president — must pledge to award their electors to whoever wins the popular vote in the nation as a whole, even if that person does not carry their state. The compact does not take effect until the requite number of states have signed onto it, and must also be approved by Congress before it can take effect.
One effect of this compact, in addition to preventing a situation like 2000 where the loser of the popular vote ultimately moved into the White House, is it would also shut down attempts to rig the Electoral College itself. Earlier this year, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus said that “a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red” should rig future presidential elections by allocating their electoral votes by congressional district. Such a plan would not only take advantage of gerrymandering that benefits Republicans, it would also be limited to blue states currently controlled by Republican state governments.
Americans need to get behind this attempt…….we can make a better government and a better voting experience….amd I am all in favor of a better experience and a better country. How about you?
Two corrections.
1 We are not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic, big difference.
2. You don’t need 270 electoral votes to win the elections, you simply need the majority. (Remember that whole detox thing I was talking about) If you have 50 people running for president and each one wins one state the guy who wins California is president.
I am 100% against the popular vote initiative.
I am 100% in favor of repealing the 17th Amendment.
The Constitution “had” a series of checks and balances, the electoral college and the state legislatures electing their state senators were just two.
The people were weary of a powerful federal goverment that could:
Have the country in a perpetual state of war.
Printing worthless paper money.
(add another 100 items here)
To combat this the House of Representatives would be elected by popular vote every 2 years by the people and the Senate would be elected by the State Legislatures, and therefore be loyal to the States. If a Senator voted against the wishes of the State (Patriot Act?) he or she could be recalled.
Now we have this monster of a federal goverment that runs rough shot over the States and the people. We were warned and we thought we knew better. Not interested in making another mistake.
I agree with most what you say…I do not think that the Fed govt is running rough shod over the states…if that were true there would be no voting suppression laws ….everyone that could vote can…..I am not comfortable with the legislatures electing the senators….sounds like a good prescription for corruption and we already have enough of that….