Posted on 11/16/2016 6:21:34 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden
Retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who was an outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, is set to introduce a Senate bill that aims to end the Electoral College.
Boxer announced in a statement on Tuesday that the bill, which she planned to introduce later Tuesday afternoon, would determine the winner of presidential elections by the outcome of the popular vote.
She cited President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the Electoral College despite Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's apparent popular vote advantage.
Trump now praises Electoral College, says he could have won popular vote
"In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote," Boxer said in a statement. "The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Will she also get rid of the Senate, since it operates by the same system and exists for the same reason?
Seems absurd New Hampshire has the save votes in the Senate as does Texas or California.
Just abolish it and have the House!
Good point. It’s more likely that the 38 least populous states would wish to strengthen their leverage by adjusting the system as follows:
Keep the 438 electors distributed to the states according to population, but add 6 electors to each state based on statehood (currently 2 per state regardless of population). Now the total number of electors would be 438 +(8x50)=838. 420 required to win.
This would roughly balance the number of population based electors (438) with the number of non-population based electors (400). Also repeal the 17th amendment and increase senators per state according to the same formula.
Many people forget that the states would never have ratified the constitution without the electoral college system and other non population based reinforcement to their state sovereignty, such as the senate.
In retrospect, the smaller states should have held out for more.
The old metaphor of thirty wolves and twenty sheep voting on what’s for dinner is a perfect indictment of the flaw of democracy. Why would the various animal species (the states) agree to a democratic vote regarding the food chain? The answer is that they wouldn’t. They didn’t. Hence the electoral college system and the senate.
These anti-democracy structures need to be understood and reinforced or the populous cities of LA, NYC and Chicago with their urban perspectives and values will force the rest of us to conform and eventually devour us.
The article was poorly written, but this sentence near the end makes clear that what Boxer introduced was a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Electoral College:
“If Boxer’s amendment were to pass, it would amend the U.S. Constitution, and “would take effect when ratified by three-fourths of states within seven years after its passage in the U.S. Congress,” a statement from Boxer’s office read.”
Boxer’s proposal would be horrible for our republican form of government and will not be adopted by 2/3 of each house, much less approved by state legislatures of 3/4 of the states, but it is, indeed, a proposed constitutional amendment, not ordinary legislation.
“Since a Constitutional amendment would require a 2/3 approval vote in the Senate and a 2/3 approval vote in the House, followed by approval in 38 state legislatures, seems that you are intentionally doing an “end run” around the Constitutional amendment procedure.”
Now you don’t really think Boxer understands any of this, do you ?
Barbara Boxer is so much more smarter then those guys who founded the country and whose success as a free country for more then two hundred years we owe so much to.
Why hasn’t anyone else seen thru this electoral collage problem before Barbara Boxer?......
#6 Repeal the womens right to vote dagnabbit!
Justiceseeker 93: Trying to educate Sen. Boxer is like trying to teach a rock how to swim.
In her Marxist/authoritarian world, the mantra is “We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution. Therefore we don’t need no stinkin’ constitutional amendment”.
True. If all that matters is vote count then only the most populated states, counties and cities will matter. NYC, LA, Chicago, San Fran, Seattle, Miami, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans , St Louis, KC, etc. The Green Rivers, Lynchburgs, Burlington, Fitchburg, Daytona Beach, and the likes mean zip. Damn sad when only large urban areas mean so much.
The electoral process is written into the Constitution. It can only be changed through a Constitutional Amendment.
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