Feinstein to call for abolishing Electoral College

YubaNet.com ^ | 8/25/07 | Feinstein office

[melt]

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that she will introduce a resolution to abolish the Electoral College and provide for the direct popular vote of the President. Senator Feinstein's announcement comes against the backdrop of a bid in California to qualify a ballot initiative that would skew the outcome of Presidential elections.

"This proposed California initiative is very dangerous – it is an attempt to tinker with state law in order to influence the outcome of national Presidential elections," Senator Feinstein said.

"There is no question that our system of electing a President is outmoded, but this initiative is not the way to do it. I believe that the Electoral College must be abolished, and that the President be elected through direct popular election."

"Under the current system, it is possible for a Presidential candidate to lose the popular vote, but to be elected by the Electoral College. This has happened four times in the nation's history, most recently in 2000."

"And the current system enables a handful of states to become battleground states, and disenfranchises tens of millions of American voters in the most important election in the nation. By amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College, and replacing it with a system in which the winner is the candidate with the most votes nationwide, we will ensure that the method of electing the President and Vice President is fair and uniform."

Currently, California gives all of its 55 electoral votes to the candidate winning the popular vote statewide. This method is used by almost all the states. Under the initiative drive being circulated in California, the state would give Presidential candidates one electoral vote for every Congressional district that they win, plus two electoral votes for whichever candidate gets the most votes in the state.

[melt]

She's got to trash the Constitution as soon as possible--- because it's just so unfair to Democrats in '08...

[yldstrk]

Evil idea.

Just ask the Phillipinos who just established an electoral college because by popular vote they ended up with a popular movie star for a President.......

[Recovering_Democrat]

I'm Dianne Feinstein, and I know better than the Founding Fathers.

[YOUGOTIT]

Just like all Nazi she wants to destroy the Constitution so that the anti-American left-wing in California and New York can rule the world.

[txzman]

God help America - too many ignorant fools don’t understand the repercussions. Feinstein does - she knows its a sure fire way of making sure “promise it all” Liberals can win consistently.

All elections if this passes will be decided by welfare immigrants in LA, Chicago, New York, Houston, Boston, Miami - gee that’s about it.

[BenLurkin]

"President be elected through direct popular election."

VERY bad idea.

[BunnySlippers]

This has happened four times in the nation's history, most recently in 2000."

Had Gore won in 2000 she would not be introducing this legislation.

[maggief]

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’d like to call for abolishing liberal morons from holding office. It’s a clear and present danger to our republic.

[RichInOC]

Here's my attitude on DiFi's proposal and the GOP's district-by-district proposal: No. The system works. Far more often than not. Don't mess with it.

[Paperdoll]

If there aren’t enough Senators and Congressmen to soundly defeat this move of Feinstein’s to ensure a one party system - guess which party - I don’t hold any hope for the country. It is time to clean House or else!!!

[andyandval]

This hag ought to be in jail.

As a member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Feinstein voted for appropriations worth billions to her husband's firms

[miliantnutcase]

She looks like a gangster in that pinstripe suite holding the “evil” AK clone with the ammo drum.

[isom35]

ask her who wins the world series, the team that wins the most games, or the team that scores the most runs. if Joe Torre, after the Yankees lose a World Series, said “well, we did score more runs overall” he’d be laughed off the face of the planet.

[Political Junkie Too]

Had Gore won in 2000 she would not be introducing this legislation.

She might not, but I bet somebody would if they figure out that the need the blue-state city vote to overwhelm the red-state vote in order to get Hillary! elected.

-PJ

[TomGuy]

So a dozen of the most populous states and largest cities can determine the national election?

No thanks, Diane.

[Thank G_d that the Founding Fathers had better sense than this current crop of self-interest, self-promoting, self-aggrandizing politicians have.]

[Sacajaweau]

Our forefathers set that up in that particular way to counter the..."selective groups" of a party rather than considering all the peoples of a state. What happened with Gore was exactly WHY they set it up that way.

Remember that Hillaryt was the FIRST to ask for doing away with the College...right after Gore was defeated.

By the way...Gore lost his OWN state which would have given him the election. Pretty sad when you can't carry your own state.

Florida...You can thank Russert and his dogs for all the confusion. It was a crock.

[Proud2BeRight]

Why is the Constitution such a problem to Democrats?

[Tench_Coxe]

In the age of the Internet, where awareness of voting results can be magnified, a short jump of logic takes one to a point where the disenfranchised population, under Feinstein's scenario, begins to realize the scam.

It takes, I think, a good number of semi-truckloads of food per day to keep New York alive. How long does one think it will take, once the scam infuriates those in 'flyover country', to have those shipments stop?

[Joe Boucher]

The electoral college was enacted to ensure small populated states had pull just like large populated states.