GET RID OF BILL NELSON INSTEAD
Posted on 06/07/2008 9:55:32 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
The U.S. would no longer use the Electoral College to choose its presidents under a proposal introduced Friday by Florida's Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
Instead, presidents would be picked by popular vote, a method that would have given former Vice President Al Gore the White House after the contested 2000 election.
"It's time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one person, one vote," Nelson said in a statement.
But changing the system requires a constitutional amendment and a meat grinder of legislative tests.
First, Congress must approve the idea, and then 38 state legislatures must ratify the change within seven years. Even if it succeeds, a change likely wouldn't come until the next decade.
"Election reform is always a subject that gets people's attention, but it's always more difficult to do than people anticipate," said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida.
The problem is twofold, she said. Throughout U.S. history, the idea of eliminating the Electoral College has been opposed by whichever major party would be put at a disadvantage. Smaller states also have resisted the change because it diminishes their influence in presidential races.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
bump
Geez, the Democrats and the Popular Vote. If they’re so enamored of the Popular Vote why are they nominating a guy who lost the Popular Vote in their own primaries?
The Dems will pump up turnout in the big cities and win national elections if these changes happened.
And has anyone explained why state legislatures other than New York, California, Texas and Florida would agree to make their states irrelevant in presidential elections?
Imagine that..... A democrat Senator believes he knows better how to preserve the Republic than the founders.
This ass clown is dangerous.
They simply can’t leave well enough alone.
Nelson left the better part of his thought processes on his Space Shuttle mission...
Not necessarily so. Campaigning is done based on the electoral college. It would have been an entirely different game had they known it would be strictly on popular vote. I don't say that it wouldn't have been so, just that it's not the slam dunk the say it is.
Changing it at this stage in our country's history and development would be just one more step in dissolution of the greatest nation in the history of the world.
Feelings...
They should have introduced Nelson to the airlock on the Space Shuttle mission he bribed his way onto.
But....
I would not support it unless:
1. The polls were opened for 24 hours and at the exact same time in every state. IE open at 0100 in NY, 0200 in IL, 0300 in CO, 0400 in CA an so on. And close of course at the exact same time 24 hour later.
2. ANYONE caught conducting exit polls would be subject to election tampering charges and serve 1 to 5 years in prison if convicted.
3. Any Media outlet “Projecting” winners/losers in election returns PRIOR to the closing of polls would be subject to same said Election tampering charges and prison terms.
4. Primary elections would be conducted in the same manner except 3 or 4 primary elections would be held monthly starting with the first Tuesday in April with the parties choosing how they would weed out the non-contenders before their conventions. Caucuses would be outlawed.
5. Surely others could come up with some more good ideas to make 1 man 1 vote a viable alternative to the Main Stream Media, the New Hampshire voters, and the Iowa Caucus Controllers picking the Presidential candidates for the whole country.
Another demented Washington politician yearning to tinker with the Constitution.
Three quarters of these freaks need to retire before they do any more damage to the country.
A few more times I would guess :)
Tell this to your Dem friends: You live in Massachusetts.
Under the electoral college, Obama wins the state and gets
the electoral votes. If he puts together the right coalition of states, small or big, he is elected.
But suppose McCain gets more popular
votes nationally. Obama won Mass. but it doesn’t matter because McCain won more pop. votes nationally. If electoral college is banned, and pop votes only counted, McCain’s in, in
that example. How does it feel, Dems?
2004 election; suppose there’s no elec college
Final
Bush 62,040,610
Kerry 59,028,444
Bush still wins.
But smaller states don’t get ignored in
the campaign. Obama could lose the popular vote but still
get in via electoral votes, if he puts the right states
together.
“Changing it at this stage in our country’s history and development would be just one more step in dissolution of the greatest nation in the history of the world.”
Which unfortunately is their entire goal.
“Let me see. Would the Dems be more able to cheat their way into the Presidency? That’s all I want to know.”
Yes. Four word: Big City Dead Vote.
PS Whatdayathink about all our (Buckeye) #1 ratings in the major rag sheets? And any comments on that train wreck (already) of a coach at the state up north?
Of course the electoral college also keeps candidates out of California because it's going Dem anyhow.
From the party that still won’t permit the counting of the absentee votes in Fla./2000 election.
6. Minimum voting age of 21.
7. Mandatory Literacy and Civics tests, uniformly administered throughout all 50 States. (Or is it 57?)
8. “One man one vote” scrapped in favor of proportionate voting rights. For example, $100,000 paid in taxes in the previous year gets you 10 votes. $10,000 paid gets you 1 vote. No taxes paid (or receipt of public assistance of any kind) gets you NO say in how other people’s money is spent.
.....I could go on, but you get the point.
I agree with this piece 100%. I've had it with people voting for tax levies and sticking me with the bill, when they don't pay a freaking dime of taxes.
People tend to forget (and today are probably not being taught) that at the time of the founding, the only voters were free men of age, and there was no welfare system or an income tax.
Are they really that stupid? Do they think low population states are going to go for this. Either sheer stupidity or grand-standing.
They are not stupid, and they don’t give a rat’s rear-end for what the small states may think, those states represent an expensive inconvenience in media expenditures.
Law of Unintended Consequences: Thanks here to Jeff Greenfield and his “People’s Choice” novel from mid-90’s.
Let us say that McCain “wins” Nov. 6, close but indisputable, wins both popular and Electoral vote. Then, about Thankgiving, the old gentleman rises about three AM, either to answer the infamous phone call or a call of nature. As he navigates toward the reading room, he trips over the family dog, falls down a flight of stairs, and is tragically dead of an accidental broken neck before the Secret Service knows it has happened.
Who is the next President? Hint #1, it isn’t in the 25th Amendment, don’t bother looking. Hint #2, since it isn’t in the 25th, forget Pelosi or trying to rank cabinet holders by age of the dept.
Do you come up with “I don’t know”? Congratulations, that is the correct answer. Assuming a President-elect dies between Nov. and the mid-December meetings of the Electoral College in their various state capitols, we suddenly wake up to a reality that Texas at least acknowleged in passing as late as 1980. November, we do NOT vote for Presidential candidates, we vote for Electors theoretically pledged to a candidate.
In the event the candidate an elector was supposed to vote for is no longer here, that elector is free as a bird. Reality, he/she was to begin with. Most states have statutes requiring electors to vote as did the people electing them. The Constitutionality of such laws is unresolved. The only time the Supreme Court had a shot at it, they took a powder and passed. I was living in NC when a Nixon delegate voted for Wallace, the state and the Dem. Party took it to SCOTUS, SCOTUS ruled it was moot in that it would not have materially affected Nixon’s election. In short, just as the Founders intended, the “faithless elector” laws have no teeth.
OK, in my hypothetical, poor Mr. McCain is still wormfood and we still have no President-elect. VP nominee has no status, in fact, the Electors are not even pledged to the Party of the Nov. “winner”. The best a lot of serious people with many letters after their names come up with, in this hypothetical, the next President is whoever the Electoral College, those 535 county secretaries, rules committee chairs, and other long-serving functionaries normally awarded the usually pro-forma job say it is.
In a most irregular election year, be afraid; be very afraid.
Hey Nelson, what are ya, some kinda retard?
OHHHHHH!!!AHHYYYYYY
What about all those human hybrids that are in the works - the part cow, part chimp humans? How much human DNA does a pig or a cow or a chimp need inorder to per considered a voting person?
Keep in mind .. this is really HILLARY’S idea. She’s floating it because she believes she has won the POPULAR VOTE during the primaries and therefore REALLY WON - just call her Gore II.
The dems have been talking about this ever since Gore won the popular vote in 2000 - but Bush won the Electoral votes. So .. right now the dems hate the Electoral voting and want to abolish it.
But .. it has a very specific purpose and I don’t think we should tamper with it. Our founding fathers gave us this method to avoid MOB RULE - and I believe the Electoral College is the best way to elect a President.
Maybe Shrillary won’t care so much about the Electoral College now that she’s not the nominee (but has she really given up, heheh).
If they could do it by fiat, I’m sure they would. Unfortunately for them, they’re going to have to amend the Constitution which is somewhat difficult :)
I live in FL and Bill Nelson has a marginal mind at best. We are plagued by this idiot.
What we really need is to keep the Electoral College and to go back to the election of US Senators by state legislatures. Abolishing the 17th Amendment
I'll start looking for the petition. If I can't find one, it's high time to start one.
Sen. Bill Nelson wants to get rid of Electoral College...
not bad...as most lib/dems want to scrap the US constitution in total....
they favor the charter and dictates of the UN!!!!
The socialist/marxist agenda is thriving and flourishing during this election. The dems have dimmed down education to the point where they almost control the masses at this point. Nelson is an excellent example (remember his son got into rather serious trouble with the law a couple of years ago) and his cuban marxist compatriot, martinez is on a closely paralleled path. We need to dump 75% of all of our elected officials to Washington this fall.
The maroons in Colorado and Maine (if I am not mistaken) already have proportional electoral college votes.
GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Evidently, states are free to do their own thing.
Just as an aside here, I have heard many people oppose the “winner-takes-all” format of the EC. That is not carved in Constitutional stone. Maine awards EC votes proportionally, only state I’m sure of. Colorado had the idea on the ballot, 06 I think, was defeated there.
If you think proportional award is more democratic, take the notion to your democratically elected state Reps. and Senators.
Nelson’s seat should have been a Republican pickup in 2006. Unfortunately the state and national party failed to support the candidate, Harris due to her unpopularity with the mainstream press. Plus she was a poor candidate anyway.
Had the party run a strong conservative instead of Harris, and provided strong financial support, Nelson would be sitting at home today. Elections do matter.
Anchor babies aren’t carved in Constitutional stone either. Get rid of the 14th Amendment rulings that allow illegal aliens to drop anchor babies here
Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) would like to abolish the Electoral College. This of course would require an amendment to the Constitution, a process which our Founding Fathers wisely made difficult. If they had not invented the Electoral system, a candidate could ignore the views of millions of voters in smaller states. He could campaign almost exclusively in the big states and major cities, and get elected. Voters who are residents of states such as Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Delaware, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire would be completely disenfranchised. If this were to happen, we would no longer have a republic of 50 sovereign states. We would have mob rule, aka “democracy” in the style of the bloody French revolution.
Bill Nelson: Yet another reason why the 17th Amendment should be repealed.
If the democrats and McCain truly wanted campaign finance reform, they would get rid of the two early 20th century “progressive” Constitutional amendments: direct elections of senators; income tax.
Instead they would rather take away the citizens free speech rights.
Part of the beauty of the electoral college is there is no real problem with counting the vote (despite what the dims claim about 2000) It’s much easier to count 535 votes accurately than 125 million votes. What happens if no person wins a majority of the popular vote (e.g. Bill Clinton 1992,1996) does the Congress then get to decide like they do now?
It take some arrogance to believe you are wise than Hamilton or Madison in political matter.
That’s exactly right. Harris could have beat Nelson if she had received support from the state Republican party, governor Jeb Bush, and president George W. But she was abandoned by them.
Then there is Mel Martinez (RINO-FL), who opposes drilling offshore and in Alaska. He is a Democrat poorly disguised as a Republican. He said he would consider or study Nelson’s proposal for a Constitutional amendment to end the Electoral system! He probably has no clue why our Founding Fathers devised the Electoral system. As a Reagan Republican in Florida, I do not have a US senator who represents me ...... just one Demo-Socialist and one RINO.
Fool proof national voter ID cards would also have to be part of the equation. Voting methods would also have to be standardized.
It really is amazing how stupid nelson is, but then again democrats are stupid people so ...
As Franklyn said This is a republic if you choose to keep it that way, (paraphrase), apparently some wish to destroy that..
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