Posted on 12/23/2004 10:46:30 AM PST by johnny7
Moderate Dem wants Senate to vote on reform.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is lending her moderate voice to the fight to abolish the Electoral College, calling it an "anachronism" unsuited to the 21st century and promising to introduce legislation to provide for a popular election of the President and Vice President. "We need to have a serious, comprehensive debate on reforming the Electoral College," Feinstein said. "My goal is simply to allow the popular will of the American people to be expressed every four years when we elect our President."
Rob Richie, director of the Maryland-based Center for Voting and Democracy, applauded Feinstein's commitment to the issue, saying the Electoral College's winner-take-all system and partisan dominance in most states may lead to fierce competition in as few as five in 2008. "Most Americans never saw a presidential TV ad in their local market," Richie said. "In Toledo, Ohio, there were 1,400 or more. Some states get all the attention, others get none."
The last Senate vote on Electoral College reform was a quarter century ago, but with two back-to-back narrowly decided presidential contests, reform cries have again reached a peak. After President Bush won the 2000 election without the popular vote -- only the fourth such outcome ever -- Sen. John Kerry in November came only thousands of votes short of an Electoral College win, despite losing the popular vote by more than 3 million votes. San Francisco Republican Party chair Mike DeNunzio said his concern with Feinstein's proposal is that candidates would lose focus on states like Nevada or Iowa, but he agreed the issue deserves serious study. "They should be calling for a commission to rethink this as we go into the 21st century," DeNunzio said. "Some mending has to take place." An Electoral College reform proposal by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is pending in the House of Representatives, and, unlike Feinstein's plan, it would require a runoff if one candidate did not achieve more than 50 percent of the vote.
Attempts to Abolish
Since its inception as Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution, there have been more than 700 attempts to abolish or amend the Electoral College system. It was modified by the 12th and 23rd Amendments.
• In 1950, an amendment to make the electoral vote proportional to the popular vote passed in the Senate, but died in the House of Representatives.
• In 1969, a proposal to shift to a direct popular election with a 40 percent threshold or a runoff passed the House, but failed in the Senate due to a filibuster.
• In 1979, a proposal to abolish the college failed in the Senate.
-- Source: Center for Voting and Democracy
Even the outstate counties would join nearby seceeding states!
Yep! And .. that's what the dems want. They think they have more voters .. 2004 proved that analysis wrong. Diane should reconsider her plan .. it has a major flaw = silent majority.
Between Feinstein and Boxer..you have two nuts that
coopeate with only one thing...Democrats. Our state
should be Republican....all we have to do is convert
all the Hollywood nutcases, 2 Senators, San Francisco
Mayor and all the beardd, lazy ass pimps, and whores
across the fruited plains..Electoral College is the
United States of America..not New York or California...
Jake
She's a 'moderate' on abortion too... you can only have one once a year.
quote: "15% of the Democratic Party is black, nothing French looking about them"
Tell that to blacks in New Orleans ... I think they'd disagree.
I agree with Feinstein to a point. Yet, just to make sure, we should experiment for eight or twenty presidential cycles...experiment just in California. California's electoral votes could be split in exact proportion to California's votes in every presidential election. Then after say 30 presidential elections, we could reassess and see if that was a good choice.
Who you calling French lookin'? Maybe we're more British looking, or German looking or Irish or Icelandic looking. Anything but French. Kerry, on the other hand is VERY French looking, with a touch of bloodhound mixed in.
I think we should abolish Feinstein and call it even.
I expect they'll try to get the courts to rule the Electoral College 'unconstitutional'. :)
Democrat leadership is attempting to encourage the psychosis of the party members.
I believe Feinstein is a Senator because she is too stupid to make a good housewife.
The predominance of red states would prevent any of these stupid ideas from occurring. But there is a real potential problem which we have to look out for - splitting electors within a state (ie, Maine). Nevada's Sec of State (a purported republican) proposed splitting the states electoral voters by congressional districts with two votes for the candidate who wins the most votes. This is a workable idea and would be generally consistent with our republican ideals - except.... the only states that ever consider this idea are smaller states. Its never NY or CA who are thinking about giving away a few dozen electoral votes to the GOP for the millions of votes which are cast for us in those states which result in ZERO electoral votes for us.
If CA, NY and IL would volunteer to split their electoral votes to represent the winners of each congressional district, I think we could have a workable alternative. But, of course, they want ALL of the votes in their states and to cherrypick some votes in our states too. But that ain't gonna happen. Its just the do-gooders in the smaller states proposing this idea (think Colorado in 2004). So, in effect, its a suicide attempt for the GOP to do this halfway. But if it were done on the entire country, then it would be another electoral lock for the GOP and would actually make the Congressional election each other cycle a referendum on the presidential candidate (which might not be too good - think Dole '96 or Ford '76).
Demonrats cannot win at the ballot box so they have to come up with a new way to count votes, new way to apportion votes, new way to interpret the laws of voting, new way to do math, etc, etc in order to come up with a way to win in November. Their frustration is palpable, just look at Washington state.
Splitting EV's is suicide for the Republicans and should be avoided at all costs. If only a few states such as CO, OH and FL decide to split EV's, Presidential elections become unwinnable for the Republicans for the forseeable future.
"Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is lending her moderate voice to the fight to abolish the Electoral College..."
Feinstein isn't a moderate, she's a "Neo Commie". Karl Marx would agree with her, to abolish the Electoral College. This would allow Presidential candidates to ignore most of the country and spend all campaign resources in big cities having high % of welfare recipients & Demo Rats. Just campaign in Los Angeles, San Francisco, NYC, Boston, Philadephia, DC, etc. etc. and promise everyone a free lunch. The mob rules.
Ms. FrankENSTEIN there is a very good reason for the Electorial College.
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