Posted on 09/06/2008 4:46:21 AM PDT by Billg64
OLYMPIA -- State senators have approved a bill that would deliver the state's electoral votes to the U.S. presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.
The bill, which passed 30-18 Monday, now heads to the House.
The bill would change Washington's current system of typically giving all of the state's electoral votes to the candidate who wins the statewide election to awarding all of the state's delegates to the national popular vote winner.
Almost every state has considered a similar bill. Maryland and New Jersey have passed such a measure.
The proposal would take effect only if enough states -- those with a majority of votes in the Electoral College -- agreed to it.
Why not just sit out the election and give the delegates to the national popular vote winner? It will save the state money on those pesky election days!
Yes, all Democrat leaning states should agree to this.
Seem’s we’re getting closer and closer to that edge we can’t step back from.......
This movement is so ignorant and ridiculous, in so many ways. There were good reasons for the elctoral college system when implemented, and I’d argue they are even more important now.
Therefore if 20 candidates run for the president, and the winner has only 20% of the national vote, that means that we’ve somehow improved things by putting a grossly unsupported person into the White House?
This is insane. It will encourage huge numbers of candidates to run for the presidency.
It is conceivable that a California candidate, if he wins just the California votes and nothing else, could be the president.
This would only work if the bill were also to stipulate that the electoral votes would only go to the popular vote winner if that winner attains a national majority of the votes.
The socialists don’t like the idea of this nation being a representative Republic.
This is yet another attempt to dismantle the Constitution.
After all, as the libs love to argue, it’s “ a living document”.
If Obama wins the Electoral College but loses the popular vote (as Bush did in 2000), this tomfoolery will die faster than a fruit fly. Of course, if this concept had been in place in 2000, they might STILL be counting the votes. The only way this would ever work would be if they required a true majority of the popular vote to win - not a plurality - with run offs eliminating the minor candidates.
This is an appalling bill. And yes, you are right, this allows them to decide their vote after the gross national votes have been tallied, thereby depriving the individual state of any power and completely defeating the purpose of the electoral college.
I think they’re going to try very hard to steal the next election, because I don’t think Barry and Joe are going to be able to win it fair and square. I hope the GOP lawyers are already preparing themselves and trying to determine possible strategies that the Dems might use, based on their prior attempts in 2000 and 2004.
Why even keep the Electoral College if they are going down this road. It just negates its purpose. Plus Amendment 17 put us on the road to Democracy from Federal Republic. So is anybody surprised by this?
This is an end-run around the Constitution. In order to have the system you suggest, the Constitution would have to be amended. In effect, it is undermining the concept of federalism.
Agree that is why America is a republic.
If states are stupid enough to do it they can.
Why not just sit out the election and give the delegates to the national popular vote winner? It will save the state money on those pesky election days!Why not just have the media decide? They know best anyway.
People need to be really careful about changing things. It seems like anytime something is changed in the election process it turns out that the Democrats were behind it. For example, changing the primaries to allow open primaries. Hillary Clinton was known to be one of those people who a few years ago was talking about getting rid of the electoral way of voting. I think this is another Dem attempt to destroy our political system. I say no to any and all attempts at reforms at this point.
Really, I live in MA too.
I’m not familiar with this law.
Do you know what year this was passed? I’d like to find out more about this if I can.
I think we need to take this seriously. Without the electoral college, the Sarah Palin gambit would fail from the getgo. She and people like her, meaning us, are hated by the urban elites. If the Electoral College is done away with, either by Constitutional Amendment or by this roundabout process, we become the slaves to the bi-coastal elites. The only way the “sleeping bear” that was awakened by the Palin nomination worked was because of the Electoral College system.
Who has standing to bring a lawsuit that could declare these state laws unconstitutional? Or must we wait until the national threshold of however many states doing the same thing (written into these individual state laws) nears? That provision would seem to make clear that it is an end run around the Constitution-amendment process. Can that be challenged now rather than waiting?
Don’t you think that it is a little interesting that just as the conventions are over, Hillary going back to work, this is one of the first things that comes up? It’s no coincidence to me, I think the witch is back at work. I don’t care if it was from the House first, of course it was, her operatives wouldn’t want to make it look like she is behind it. I am sick of these Clintonesta tactics. The Republican Party needs to get with it.
this year, it was not covered well by the media. I am not sure that gov. Patrick has signed it yet.
I am pretty ignorant on legal issues. But it seems that almost anyone from the affected states should be able to fall under the protection of the federal judiciary.
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