Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Reform the Electoral College
seattletimes ^ | 08/27/2019 | Seattle Times Editorial Board

Posted on 08/28/2019 7:30:38 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

The controversial way America elects presidents is barreling toward a crisis point. A federal court ruling has spotlighted the confounding nature of the system, which twice in the last five elections put presidents into office against the wishes of the majority of American voters.

Under the Constitution, the voters who select a president every four years are, in fact, picking a party-chosen slate of electors pledged to that candidate. The presidential candidate who wins a state’s popular vote gets all its electors — except in Nebraska and Maine, which split the electors by Congressional districts. These electors formally select the president after Election Day passes. This mechanism solved two problems of 1789’s America that no longer plague the nation.

Mass, instant communication — of news, commentary and campaign rhetoric — means voters have no need to designate others to make informed choices, which was the argument Alexander Hamilton made in support of the Electoral College. The system also induced southern slave states to join the union by giving them power at a time when the more populous north would have dominated a national popular election.

(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Maine; US: Nebraska; US: Washington; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: 2020election; college; constitution; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; election2020; electoral; electoralcollege; faithlesselectors; maine; mediawingofthednc; nationalpopularvote; nebraska; no; npv; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; radicalleft; reform; smearmachine; washington
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 last
To: Dixie Yooper

Every time there is a National Census, The House of Representatives and The Electoral College gets reformed.
//////////////////////////

Correct. Illegals are counted in the census and California receives additional representation because of this, as do other states where illegals reside. The census issue demonstrates that the number of electoral votes a state receives is directly proportional to the number of people living in the state. Therefore, every person in existence in America at the time of the most current census is represented by the electoral college.
Actually the overriding reason for the state by state vote for Presidential elections (electoral college system) is to preserve the political and geographical independence and integrity of each individual state. The populous states do overwhelm the small states even with the electoral college system because the number of electoral votes is still determined by population. Using the electoral college system however, allows the majority vote in each state to win all that states’ votes, insuring that the will of the majority of people within that state is expressed at the ballot box. If we merely poll all individuals within the national borders, ALL STATES WILL BE DISENFRANCHISED. The interests of the individual states would not be expressed, effectively destroying the federal system.
It is theoretically possible for 90% of voters in flyover country all voting for the same candidate and 90% voter turnout to overwhelm the large population coastal states if only 55% voted for the other candidate and only 40% voter turnout. What would be lost in this type of election is individual geographic and political, states rights and interests.
Democrats have long been stupid, shallow, thoughtless mobs ruled by feelings not intelligence. Unfortunately it is beginning to look like the majority of Americans fit that description.


61 posted on 08/28/2019 10:50:24 AM PDT by photodawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: ChicagoConservative27

Stinking Fake News Alert!

62 posted on 08/28/2019 11:21:17 AM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC Burke
Most have forgotten statesmanship:

...though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression...
--Thomas Jefferson--

63 posted on 08/28/2019 12:39:11 PM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Repealthe17thAmendment

Uh, no. Go read Federalist 68. Just an excerpt:

Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one querter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union? But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort, with the most provident and judicious attention. They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the numbers of the electors. Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias. Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it. The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time as well as means. Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen States, in any combinations founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty.


64 posted on 08/28/2019 1:01:46 PM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Henry Hnyellar
Finally. Another Freeper who understands the The Framers' Electoral College.
65 posted on 08/28/2019 2:47:42 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: ChicagoConservative27

Bump


66 posted on 08/30/2019 7:54:52 PM PDT by foreverfree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson