Popular Vote Movement Makes Headway

http://www.wral.com/news/political/story/1138196/ ^

[LC HOGHEAD]

BISMARCK, N.D. — A movement to essentially junk the Electoral College and award the presidency to the winner of the nationwide popular vote is making some headway in states large and small - including, somewhat improbably, North Dakota.

The National Popular Vote movement is aimed at preventing a repeat of 2000, when Democrat Al Gore lost despite getting more votes than George W. Bush.

Backers are asking states to change their laws to award their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationally.

A bill to do that was introduced last week in the North Dakota Legislature, even though it could reduce the political influence of small states like North Dakota.

"Its strength is, it is what the people want," said one of the sponsors, Rep. Duane DeKrey, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "It kind of takes out that system where the person who gets the most votes doesn't necessarily win."

[unkus]

Not good.

[tfelice]

And thus the Republic dies

[saganite]

I wonder if they explain to the voters in the small states how much leverage the electoral college gives them. Kiss that goodbye if we go to a majority vote to decide the election. In fact, pretty much anyone living outside a major city can kiss any influence goodbye.

[Dog Gone]

Very bad idea.

No need to campaign in the low population states anymore.

Win New York, LA, Chicago, and Houston, and you win the election.

[keithtoo]

Bad Idea and the small state Senators will NEVER go for it. If we had a Popular Vote election, the candidates would only campaign in California, Texas, Florida, New York and a few other states.

Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, etc would never get a visit.

[mkjessup]

From the article:

"Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor...said dissatisfaction with the Electoral College system is growing, even in states that may benefit from the current setup. A lot of Americans "don't like the Electoral College system. They find it to be out of step with expectations about democracy, expectations that our founding fathers did not necessarily share," he said.

Perhaps somebody could remind that dumb ass 'professor' that America was not INTENDED to be a 'democracy', we are a

*CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC* !!!

And that is the kind of ignorant chowderhead that is allegedly 'educating' our young people in college.

God help us.

[Uncle Hal]

More wishful thinking from the MSM and their liberal buddies.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Well this is one North Dakotan that is convinced the ridiculous notion is DOA. Any idiotic concept can be introduced as a bill in a state legislature. It would take far more to convince small states to give up the power that the Constitution provides them with.

[Telepathic Intruder]

That's another stop closer to wipinig out the concept of individual states, and a bigger federal government.

[unkus]

Hitlery came out for this several years ago.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Here we go again.

Democrats can simply campaign hard in New York, California (where illegal aliens vote in large numbers) and a couple of other liberal strongholds and the rest of the U.S. can go straight to hell.

Our votes won't count and we will never see a presidential candidate campaign out here in flyover country.

The electoral college is the only thing standing between us and tyranny of the coastal Marxists.

[Redleg Duke]

This is not a democracy, it is a Representative Republic!

[sgtbono2002]

Just something thats being pushed by people with too much time on their hands. There isnt a snow balls chance in hell that enough of the little states would ratify the proposed amendment to make it law.

[gotribe]

Will bring in a muslim republic.

[paul51]

Anyone can get a good idea what the result will be by having the people of NYC, Boston, LA and SFO select our leaders by looking at the current senators and representatives from these states/cities. Pretty scary

[xcamel]

You can blame this squarely on the education (sic) system.

[NonValueAdded]

North Dakota wants to give control to the liberal megacities? WTF?

[Psycho_Bunny]

In practical, realistic terms, I believe the fastest way to start a second Civil War in this country is to simply abolish the electoral collage system.

[LC HOGHEAD]

This would be a mistake of monumental proportions.

While they were by no means perfect, our founding fathers were very wise men. The understood the importance of constructing a system of government in which power was decentralized and drawn from the consent of the governed. The developed a unique system -- the Electoral College -- which, in my view, ensures that a wide range of states' voices are heard when it comes to selecting our president. I believe the Electoral College is unique in that it ensures that densely populated metropolitan areas cannot force-feed their electoral choices on the rest of the nation. The Electoral College ensures that a president must be able to garner support throughout the nation, not just in a few highly populated corners whose values are out of alignment with the rest of our nation.