Posted on 08/11/2017 7:52:50 AM PDT by Mafe
Okay—I’m going to step back a second on the Electoral College. In general, I think the institution has served us well for over 200 years. No, I don’t think that the five times a president was elected by winning the 270 electoral votes, but not the popular vote, constitutes a harbinger for the destruction of our republic. Liberals whine about Bush’s 2000 win. They whine about Trump’s 2016 win, albeit with more froth around the mouth. There were a solid couple of weeks worth of hot takes about how the Electoral College is archaic, racist, and anti-Democratic and yet we’re still here. Yet, there’s an emerging consensus that while the Electoral College might have served us well, we’re approaching a point where the Democrats could run the table, and that swing states, in general, are dictating policy as a result of this system. We’ll get to that in a second.
In April, Townhall was invited to a seminar by the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections to a seminar about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and other reforms relating to the Electoral College, such as electors chosen by congressional district and proportional representation. I can already hear the groans. I had my reservations, but while I’m still on the sidelines concerning taking a side—the point about swing states being a catalyst for bad policy is compelling.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Repeal the 17th Amendment and we might have something to talk about....Until then, no.
Ditto that. And I think the Founding Fathers would be quite happy with that approach. I think the Electoral College and the various supermajority requirements of our Constitution were the acts of genius that account for the longevity of our system. They assure that support for policy changes nationwide will have both geographically wide and population deep support, which simple majorities do not.
NPV is garbage.
And that is entirely Constitutional. The individual States are free to apportion their own electoral votes however they want.
The proposed Popular Vote Interstate Compact, however, is a blatant attempt at circumventing the Constitution, essentially giving NYC, LA, and other far left wing Democrat controlled large cities control over the election. It would mean the immediate end of our Republic.
The electoral college works just the way our founders designed it to work. It has saved this republic’s butt on more than one occasion.
Congressional district method:
Who ever wins 50+ percent of the vote gets that districts vote. If no one gets the 50+ percent target, then 30 days later a run off election is held with only the top two candidates on the ballot and no write ins allowed
States also have two other electoral votes, one for each senator. Assign one electoral vote to the candidate that won the most districts in the state, and assign the second candidate to the one who received the most total votes in the state. Should either of these two not have a clear voter decision such as a tie in congressional districts, then the current sitting governor at the time of the voting decides how that elector will be assigned but only from the list of winning candidates.
Article I, Section 10:
“No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress...enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State...”
NPV has another obstacle to overcome.
At this point each state needs to vote in their legislative assemblies to call for a Convention of States.
Four amendments should be at the forefront.
The first and most important should be to require that in Presidential elections, each elector be required to cast their electoral vote in the Electoral Congress for the Presidential Candidate, who received the majority of votes in their Congressional District, not in a winner take all statewide count.
The second should be for term limits.
The third should be to repeal the 17th amendment.
The fourth should be the gradual implementation of a Balanced budget for the Federal government.
Agree, the real problems began when states lost all representation through the enactment of the 17th.
Article II, Sec 1
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
They have already gutted the Constitution by just ignoring what is inconvenient.
Yes, this.
Agreed. Under that system Romney would have won in 2012, 273-262.
Certainly Democrats do, but it's why the Founding Fathers put in the Electoral College system to begin with.
Make the EC stronger! Must win a majority of Counties (or Parishes in LA) to win that state.
Many such agreements have indeed been approved by Congress.
https://ballotpedia.org/Interstate_compact
...determining “whether the compact contains a political subject affecting federal interests or the interests of non-compacting sister states, in which case congressional consent is required,” is the sole basis on which the constitutionality of such agreements lies...
A Californian many years ago noted that if Cali counts were done similar to the Electoral College, Bill Clinton never would’ve won the state. Even today, the only real blue counties are San Diego, LA, SF/Oak and Napa Valley.
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