Feinstein and Chafee want to abolish Electoral College

The Providence Journal ^ | 1/6/05 | Scott McKay

[ProudVet77]

I dislike RINOs like Chaffee and McVain, but till we have a republican to replace them, we have to keep them. If we swapped every wino errr...RINO for a dem, we'd lose control of the senate. Do you want Leaky Leahy running the judiciary committee? Or Conyer in charge of the armed services?? Or hillary in charge of anything??
Lets defeat the dems in '06 and then take care of RINOs.

[Borges]

Yeah really. Doesn't Chafee realize this? And there is no way in hell you will get enough small states to agree to this for the needed majority to amend the Constitution. Dead issue.

[katieanna]

Why abolish the EC since the electoral and popular votes go the same way (except for 4 times in 200 years)?

[Erik Latranyi]

Okay, we must eliminate the Senate itself, along with any semblance of "states" while we're at it.

Right! Let's also do away with the House of Representatives and allow the people a direct vote on all legislation, including judicial decisions!

I bet the Libs would scream about what the Consititution says then!

[Howlin]

Off the top of your head, do you know how many states it takes?

[HMFIC]

Exactly right!

I hope that the American people are waking UP to the threat posed by these damned Fifth Columnist libturds.

Repeal the EC? Over my...wait, YOUR dead body!

[rintense]

Leave it to the Dems to tear this country apart.

[HenryLeeII]

In a bipartisan alliance to abolish the Electoral College, Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee said yesterday he will join California Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein's proposal to get rid of the electoral system used to choose U.S. presidents and replace it with a one-person, one-vote popular plebisicite.

The only problem with that is:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
United States Constitution, Article IV, Section 4

Since these two morons are openly advocating a willful violation of the very document that created the government they are a part of and that they are sworn to obey and defend, I'm sure impeachment hearings will begin post haste. I'll be sure to turn on CBS News tonight to see how they're proceding...

[Beckwith]

Add this proposal to get rid of the electoral system to the 700-plus previous proposals.

[hellinahandcart]

Three-quarters of 'em.

[KevinDavis]

Sorry the EC has been very effiective for over 200 years and it should continue.. Why fix it if isn't broke?? There is nothing wrong with the EC.

[massgopguy]

Once again, the Constitution is in the way of the Democrats.

[SoFloFreeper]

I dunno, mdhunter, call me crazy, but uh...I think I'll stay with what the Founding Fathers thought was best.

I might be wrong here, but I believe THEIR intellect, concern and moral authority is a bit higher than that of Dianne Feinstein and Lincoln Chaffee.

[kellynla]

We can only hope that Condi Rice will come home and run against Feinstein in '06!
Boxer & Feinstein, Dumb & Dumber!

[Borges]

Isn't it 2/3 of the states?

[Arrowhead1952]

Chafee and Feinstein are off their meds again.

[Howlin]

The legal jargon

Passing a constitutional amendment requires two-thirds of both the House and Senate to vote in favor of the amendment. At least 38 states must ratify the amendment for it to take effect. The president has no constitutional role in the adoption of an amendment. Generally, Congress imposes a time limit for the ratification.

[KarlInOhio]

The Electoral College provides a partial firewall against the Deceased-American vote in cities like Chicago and Seattle affecting the votes in other states. Imagine in a close election and the Dems keep on "finding" more ballots deep in the blue states and demanding recounts like in Washington last year.

I would rather go the opposite way and have 2 EVs at large in a state plus one for each House district like Maine and Nebraska. That way vote fraud at one location could affect at most 3 EVs instead of a whole state's worth.

[Borges]

Oh wait thats's both houses of Congress. 3/4 of the states. Yeesh.

[balk]

"Under the current system, the only states that get any candidate visits are the battleground states," said Chafee. "As a Rhode Islander . . . I'd like to see the presidential candidates make an investment in Rhode Island. The last election came down to just Ohio and Florida."

Bad example: candidates will still ignore Rhode Island. They'll be in NYC, Chicago and L.A.