Posted on 05/09/2006 9:01:24 PM PDT by jla
The Subversive Plan To Ditch The Electoral College
by Phyllis Schlafly, May 10, 2006
A plot is afoot to change our constitutional form of government by ditching the Electoral College. John Anderson, Birch Bayh and John Buchanan, three losers who were defeated in the 1980 Reagan landslide, are scheming to change our Constitution without complying with the amendment process.
Our Constitution requires that a president be elected by a majority of votes in the Electoral College, with each state's vote weighted based on its population. But some who took an oath to defend our Constitution are plotting to undermine its essential structure by a compact among as few as eleven of the most populous states.
The plan of this Campaign for the National Popular Vote (NPV) is to get states with at least 270 votes in the Electoral College to enact identical bills requiring their own electors to ignore the winner of their state's election and cast all their state's ballots for the candidate who the state believes received more popular votes than the other candidates nationwide, even if he fails to win a majority of the popular vote.
The NPV gang of frustrated liberals has lined up sponsors for bills in California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana and Missouri. They have already persuaded the Colorado Senate to approve their proposal.
It's ridiculous and un-American to try to force electors to vote against their constituents. Yet NPV wants to require a state like Louisiana to vote for the candidate who won in other states such as New York.
The U.S. Constitution established our method of electing presidents and it has served us well for more than two centuries. It ain't broke and doesn't need fixing.
The Electoral College represents the inspired genius of our Founding Fathers. It was part of the great compromise which transformed us from thirteen rival colonies into a constitutional republic.
This great compromise gave us a Congress consisting of the Senate based on equal representation of the states and the House based on population. The Electoral College is the mirror image of this brilliant compromise and allows all states to be players in the process of electing our President.
The Electoral College is the successful vehicle by which a presidential candidate achieves a majority in a functioning political process. NPV is an outrageous proposal to construct a fake majority by stealing votes away from some candidates and transferring them to another candidate.
Because of third parties, we've had many elections (including three of the last four) when no presidential candidate received a popular-vote majority. Abraham Lincoln won less than 40 percent of the popular vote and relied on his Electoral College majority for his authority.
Basing the election on a plurality of the popular vote while ignoring the states would be like the New York Yankees claiming they won the 1960 World Series because they outscored the Pirates in runs 55-27 and in hits 91-60. No one challenges the fact that the Pirates fairly won that Series, 4 games to 3.
The fact that most elections are very close makes the Electoral College particularly advantageous. With our loose election procedures (that need to be reformed in several ways), it's easy to make credible charges of election fraud. We remember the Florida recount in 2000 and the attempt to recount Ohio in 2004.
If the popular vote were controlling, chaos would be the predictable result in any close election. An allegation of voter fraud in one state would begin a fatal chain reaction of challenges and recounts as campaign managers try to scrape up additional hundreds of votes in many states at once.
The elimination of the Electoral College would overnight make irrelevant the votes of Americans in about 25 states because candidates would zero in on piling up votes in large-population states. Big-city machines would take over, and candidates from California or New York would enjoy a built-in advantage.
The Electoral College provides an essential safeguard against the democratic factionalism decried by James Madison in Federalist 10. The Electoral College ensures that no single faction or issue can elect a president because he must win many diverse states to be elected.
The NPV slogan "Every Vote Equal" is stunningly dishonest because the NPV proposal is based on legalizing vote-stealing and on changing the rules of presidential elections by a compact of as few as eleven states instead of the 38 states needed to amend the Constitution. NPV should be repudiated before it goes any further.
The NPV proposal would also eliminate the constitutional role of Congress in dealing with the occasional happenstance of a candidate failing to get a majority of Electoral College votes. The Constitution dealt adequately with this problem in 1824.
The NPV plan has been editorially endorsed by the New York Times, which called the Electoral College "an anti-democratic relic." The New York Times could demonstrate its devotion to democracy by adopting a democratic one-share-one-vote system of control of its own newspaper instead of its current system that locks in a preferential voting category for the Sulzberger family holdings.
fyi
This is a very real danger. They will fight tooth and nail for this- they are counting on this for success in 08.
We can't wait until they get rolling. We need to make our reps get busy on stopping this NOW
there also needs to be public education on just how the electoral vote works to protect the votes of rural states - many people haven't a clue. We need to get Rush et al on it, so when people start hearing about it, they'll listen up
bump
bump for later read
This is just the next step to trash the founding fathers vision of the Republic. It started with the 17th Amendment and will end with the give-me's voting in the destruction of the Republic!
Constitution eroding redux ping
Anyone who wants to change the Elctoral College is a damn communist. They should rot in prison or be shot or hung.
I have heard that computer simulations have shown that only 11 states would have go NPV to make NPV rule the election.
This thing is dangerous but I do not see any way to solve it other than fighting it in each and every state.
If things really spin out of control
1. Hillarita elected
2. 2010 census jams it up our tailpipe (dembots screw us in OH PA NY MI WI IL and we lose up to 20 seats and control of house and senate)
I can see that "pesky" things like the electoral college (as well as those "antiquated" 2nd and 10th amendments) are updated/minimized /repealed.
3. Patriot Act is fully enfroced and strengthened against conservative Christians
In that case what is left to do but look at what happened in 1861
The one thing those commies are underestimating is the rage of millions of disenfranchised voters who's vote is going to be overruled by location of residency.
This initiative will never fly in Missouri. Any politician who is behind this will be dealt with.
The electoral college benefits us all and that includes the democrats.
With the electoral college, the candidates must win the swing states. This means we have elections where Bush campaigns in OH and Fl says I'm for a tax cut and Gore says me too and where Bush says I'm a compassionate conservative and gore says I'm not a liberal.
Without the electoral college, the game becomes, TURN OUT YOUR BASE and gore goes to NYC and says "you can't let those ignorant yahoos win" and Bush goes to texas and says "you can't let those effeminate, gay loving, egg head intellectuals win"
Throw away the EC, and we could have another civil war.
Plus, voter fraud in a swing state is likely to be minimal because both parties have some control. Voter fraud in a one party state is likely to be rampant because of one party control. But with the electoral college, voter fraud in a one party state is totally irrelevant.
Plus weather comes into play if you dump the EC. Bad weather in NY could suppress turnout in NY but with the electoral college it does not matter. Ditto for Texas.
Finally, local issues should not matter in the presidential election and with the EC, they do not.
A hot button referendum in NY could mean a big turn out for the dems for president. Ditto for Texas, only for the republicans. With the EC, it does not matter.
please read post 14
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