Posted on 01/18/2020 5:40:22 AM PST by Kaslin
The tinfoil hat wearers, the faction that includes moon-landing deniers and the kind of crackpots William F. Buckley Jr. and Russell Kirk expelled from mainstream conservatism, has set its sights on derailing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The Compact is the constitutionally conservative agreement that guarantees 270 electoral votes and the presidency to the candidate who wins the most individual votes across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Fifteen states and the district have already passed the compact, giving the measure 196 of the 270 Electoral College votes necessary for it to take effect.
With momentum for reform building in New Hampshire, one pundit is actually suggesting that the Granite State defy federal law, specifically section 3, title 3 of the U.S. code — a provision in effect since 1887 — to throw a monkey wrench into the final nationwide tally for president.
This particularly nutty idea would involve New Hampshire refusing to submit the state’s official vote count until after electors meet to officially determine the new president and vice president in the December following an election. Without a final national popular vote tally, the reasoning goes, the president and vice president could not be legally certified. One can only imagine federal marshals breaking down the door of the N.H. secretary of State’s office to secure the vote ledger. Saturday Night Live writers take note: There’s a skit here.
Joking aside, however, serious questions remain for the anti-National Popular Vote crowd. It would be enlightening for them to provide us with answers to wit:
Why are you so afraid of the United States Constitution?
Under article 2, section 1, the Framers specifically granted state legislatures the right to allocate their electoral votes in any manner they see fit. The 16 jurisdictions that have passed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact bill have done so under the full authority of the Constitution. Did the Founders get it wrong?
Why are you so afraid of the American people?
Under the compact, which preserves the Electoral College while adopting a national popular vote, the candidate who receives the most popular votes always becomes president. No vote is ever cancelled out. Regardless of whether or not you support the majority winner in your state, your vote counts for your candidate. Every voter in every state becomes relevant in every presidential election. What’s so bad about that?
Why are you so afraid of including and empowering small states and rural states that are all but ignored under the current system?
Every state should be a battleground state. A vote in New Hampshire should count as much as a vote in Florida or Ohio or any other jurisdiction. That’s what National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is all about. With every vote equal and important, it stands to reason that candidates would be compelled to campaign in states they would never bother to visit under the current system. Think Democrats campaigning in red wall states like Kansas and Republicans barnstorming in blue wall states like Massachusetts. Walls come tumbling down. What’s wrong with that?
Why are you so afraid of a boost in nationwide voter turnout?
Overall voter turnout in 2016 was 61.4%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The 12 so-called battleground states targeted by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton experienced generally higher participation than in the other 38 fly-over states. The conclusion is clear: When candidates show up in a state, so do voters. A presidential election under the compact would require candidates to campaign from sea to shining sea. Isn’t that better than limiting presidential campaigns to a handful of swing states thereby ignoring some 215 million people in the process?
New Hampshire is poised to become one of the first states to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact in 2020. And believe me when I say: New Hampshire, there is nothing to fear.
“Why are you so afraid of the American people? “
A large percentage of the people in America aren’t American in their outlook or birth.
They are afraid of the USA Constitution.
WTF?
the whole point of this “compact” is so that only the urban areas of California and New York will control our nation forever by disenfranchising the rural areas ...
The author’s use of the word “Constitutional” reminds me of a 5 year old child trying to explain what a stator does in a jet engine: “It tells you what state you’re flying over.”
Author has no concept of how the Founders viewed (pure) democracy.
Correct and this compact is an effort to short circuit the Constitution.
Don't be suckered in. This idea would have elected Hillary.
We are a Republic, not a Democracy.
Preserving the Electoral College by nullifying the Electoral College. This is what passes for logic these days.
I’m not going to be governed by any president elected by popular vote.
Beak the contract, and the contract will be broke.
Simple as that.
I have ZERO interest in letting the people in the five largest cities in the US doing all the voting. Better than 50% of the people in the country live in 6 or 8 of the biggest cities.
Just think about it, the whole country would soon be just like New York or San Francisco.
Huh? Do not the Senate and Electoral College still exist?
The Constitution was fundamentally and intentionally drafted to protect minority rights and prevent mob rule by simple majority
Its the reason we have survived and prospered as a country for so long.
The popular vote movement us a ploy to allow Progressives to seize permanent control of the US government via their demographic replacement strategy before normal Americans fully realize what is being done to them and realign politically to stop the takeover.
President Trump is leading this historic re alignment in America’s political landscape which is why Democrats are so determined to destroy him.
President Trump really is the only thing standing between the Left and its takeover of the country
Since this is townhall, I assume the entire article is sarcasm.
A simple argument: Imagine your state voted 70% to 30% for candidate A, but candidate B got the most national popular votes. Do you disenfranchise the 70% of your voters and give their electors to candidate B?
People don’t seem to understand that the individual voters don’t choose the president. The fifty member states/countries do. If one can grasp that New Hampshire and California are, to this election, what England and France would be to electing a leader of the EU. England, as a single entity, casts its vote, based on the vote of its people, and France casts its vote.
That is how the electoral college works.
And I’ll tell you right now that if Kentucky (my state) took on this methodology and our state ended up giving its electors to Sanders, well, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near our state capital for a few weeks.
This whole thing can not be taken seriously. But if it does end up happening, there will be hell to pay, nationally. It will not be pretty.
This woman is daft. I can’t believe Townhall would publish such a column ... pure liberalism at its worst.
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
Democrats never seem to learn. Every time they try to change the rules in the middle of the game it always comes back to bite them. If these states that have passed laws requiring the EVs go to the popular vote winner they are gonna be pissed when Trump gets their state’s EVs even though the state’s voters didn’t vote for him.
A vote in New Hampshire should count as much as a vote in Florida or Ohio or any other jurisdiction.
It’s funny how “popular vote” advocates see low population areas as “ignored’, so they want a popular vote. The thing is, as it now stands, they may be somewhat ignored by the candidates, but they are not ignored in the vote. Their vote matters thanks to the way the electoral college is set up.
If we go to the popular vote, they would be utterly ignored. Their votes would be irrelevant.
Meanwhile Colorado voters are getting ready to repeal it.
This thing’s kind of stalling out. It hasn’t had a single state that voted for McCain in 2008, Romney in 2012 or Trump in 2016 jump on-board. It’s fast running out of heavy blue states. When a state that voted for Trump in November 2016 signs on, wake me up, till then this is a waste of time.
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