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Elect president by popular vote? State senate signs on
The News & Observer ^ | May 15, 2007 | Dan Kane, Staff Writer

Posted on 05/17/2007 1:39:48 PM PDT by SuperSonic

North Carolina moved a big step closer to joining a national movement that could lead to the president of the United States being elected by popular vote. The state Senate, by a 30-18 partisan vote, passed legislation that would direct North Carolina's Electoral College delegates to vote for the presidential candidate with the most votes nationwide -- not the one with the most votes in the state -- if the national movement proves successful. So far, only Maryland has signed on, but more than 40 states are considering legislation that could bring them on board as well.

The movement comes after two close national presidential elections in which Republican George Bush came out the winner. In the 2000 election, the popular vote went to Democrat Al Gore, but Bush won the majority of electoral votes cast by the states. In 2004, the close vote in Ohio -- which Bush ultimately won -- drew lawsuits because if it had swung Democratic, John Kerry would have been elected president even though he hadn't won the popular vote.

A bipartisan group of former U.S. representatives and senators came up with the plan, which would take effect when enough states to create a majority of Electoral College votes had joined a compact to direct those votes to the national popular vote winner. The earliest the compact could take effect would be the 2012 election.

State Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, urged his colleagues to join the compact, saying the current system cuts most of the country out of the presidential election. In 2004, he said, the majority of campaign money spent by Bush and Kerry was in just two battleground states -- Florida and Ohio.

"We were ignored," Clodfelter said. "In 23 states, not a single TV ad ran for either of the candidates for president. They were ignored."

Republicans argued that a popular vote election would not bring presidential candidates to all corners of the country, just to the major media markets.

"They may come to Charlotte, they may come to Raleigh," said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican. "But they won't come to Eden, they won't come to Smithfield and they won't come to Wilmington. This is bad policy and bad for the people of North Carolina."

Some argued that the legislation subverted the thinking of the founding fathers when they created the Electoral College, which they said was intended to protect the rights of less populous states. Clodfelter said if North Carolina were following the founders' original plans, then lawmakers would be choosing who their Electoral College delegates stood behind, instead of the voters.

It wasn't until 1876 that North Carolina lawmakers gave state residents the right to vote for president, Clodfelter said.

The legislation now moves to the House.

Staff writer Dan Kane can be reached at 829-4861 or dan.kane@newsobserver.com.


TOPICS: US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: electoralcollege; nc; vote; voterfraud
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In other words, North Carolinians, if this passes the N.C. House your vote is irrelevant. We need to contact our representatives now!
1 posted on 05/17/2007 1:39:53 PM PDT by SuperSonic
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To: SuperSonic

Combine this with the new Shamnesty bill, and you can really grease the skids for the “decline and fall.”


2 posted on 05/17/2007 1:43:12 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine (Is /sarc really needed?)
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To: SuperSonic

Bad idea....power goes to the big cities.

They’ll dictate policy from then-on. Big cities are usually liberal.


3 posted on 05/17/2007 1:44:47 PM PDT by Rick_Michael (Fred Thompson)
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To: SuperSonic
Dems want the “Tyranny of the Masses” so bad they can taste it.
To bad they will be the first ones destroyed by it if it ever comes to pass...
4 posted on 05/17/2007 1:45:59 PM PDT by xcamel (Press to Test, Release to Detonate)
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To: SuperSonic

This is utterly ridiculous. How a state legislator could vote to make his state’s electoral votes possibly run COMPLETELY AGAINST the will of his state’s voters is beyond me.

}:-)4


5 posted on 05/17/2007 1:47:01 PM PDT by Moose4 (Deport 'em. I don't need landscaping and I'll pay more for lettuce.)
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To: SuperSonic

Already have, this is garbage left wing pap, who are these so called “bi-partisan” folks who came up with this trash?

Now it will be interesting to watch what happens when a state votes for candidate X, but the votes go to candidate Y, the peasants may break out the pitch forks at that point.


6 posted on 05/17/2007 1:47:07 PM PDT by padre35 (we are surrounded that simplifies things-Chesty Puller)
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To: SuperSonic
Basically, if this passes, anyone outside the top ten populated cities in the US will no longer have a voice in the presidential election, and considering how human nature works in close quarters, we will have presidential elections become nothing more than pop culture..
7 posted on 05/17/2007 1:47:48 PM PDT by mnehring (Enough with the clowns- time for a real man to step up - Fred Thompson '08)
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To: SuperSonic
In other words, North Carolinians, if this passes the N.C. House your vote is irrelevant. We need to contact our representatives now!

I'm pretty sure the STATE government of North Carolina can't change the FEDERAL Constitution, no matter how fervently they may wish to.
8 posted on 05/17/2007 1:48:32 PM PDT by Xenalyte (You have to defile a mummy completely, or they come back to life. You know that.)
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To: SuperSonic
The state legislature in The Peoples Republic of Maryland passed this this year. They effectively disenfranchised ALL voters who do not vote for democrats in the state. Where are all the groups who said the Florida voters were disenfranchised?
9 posted on 05/17/2007 1:49:26 PM PDT by hophead
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To: SuperSonic
My preference:

Each congressional district’s electoral vote would go to the candidate that received the most votes. The two state electoral votes would go to the candidate that received a majority of the votes within that state.

Alternatively, States electoral votes are given 1 to the chief executive of that state (governor) and the other vote is decided by unicameral session of the state legislator.

10 posted on 05/17/2007 1:49:27 PM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: SuperSonic
So they want New York, and California and Washington and Oregon and Michigan to tell us who will be our left-wing fascist pig faced Democrat.
11 posted on 05/17/2007 1:50:27 PM PDT by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the US Senate)
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To: SuperSonic

Wouldn’t this require a change to Article Two, Section One of the United States Constitution?


12 posted on 05/17/2007 1:50:34 PM PDT by Ben Mugged (Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.)
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To: SuperSonic

It would be another nail in the coffin of this once great Republic.


13 posted on 05/17/2007 1:53:27 PM PDT by TigersEye (Holding on to hope binds you to worldly concerns.)
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To: SuperSonic
"We were ignored," Clodfelter said. "In 23 states, not a single TV ad ran for either of the candidates for president. They were ignored."

How would this change that?

Candidates will go to the biggest population centers and go to where the votes are thickest.

If you can go to a big city which has almost as many voters as some states, why bother with the little states? Win the majority there, and these fools will hand you all the electoral votes from their state, whether they voted for you or you ever set foot there.

Of course, this is just a way for Democrats to steal rural state electoral votes with big city votes.

14 posted on 05/17/2007 1:55:37 PM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies must follow approved guidelines or you will be kill-filed without appeal.)
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To: SuperSonic

The only way this will ever work is by fundamentally changing the Constitution to a full poular vote with no electoral college (which is a self-destructive system, imho).


15 posted on 05/17/2007 1:59:38 PM PDT by arderkrag (Libertarian Nutcase (Political Compass Coordinates: 9.00, -2.62 - www.politicalcompass.org))
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To: Xenalyte

I believe there is no Federal requirement for exactly how a state selects their electors. So as long as NC sends the proper numbers of electors to Washington in December 2008, how they got picked is not a Federal matter. That’s what I heard, I’m not 100% sure it’s right.

}:-)4


16 posted on 05/17/2007 2:11:31 PM PDT by Moose4 (Deport 'em. I don't need landscaping and I'll pay more for lettuce.)
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To: Moose4

Then I am prepared to stand corrected! Thanks!


17 posted on 05/17/2007 2:12:55 PM PDT by Xenalyte (You have to defile a mummy completely, or they come back to life. You know that.)
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To: Ben Mugged
Wouldn’t this require a change to Article Two, Section One of the United States Constitution?
What would need to be changed?...... The Constitution gives the right to each state today to choose their electors.....

Article. II.

Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

18 posted on 05/17/2007 2:22:19 PM PDT by deport ( Cue Spooky Music...)
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To: SuperSonic
Maryland already passed this.

In Maryland what it surmounts to is...right now every Marylander’s vote is worth 1 out of 1.5 million to decide where Maryland’s 10 electoral votes go. With the new plan, each Marylander’s vote will be worth 1 out of 30 to 40 million to decide where Maryland’s 10 electoral votes go.

19 posted on 05/17/2007 2:28:59 PM PDT by Vision ("Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." Jeremiah 17:7)
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To: deport

Because it’s questionable if this type of electoral vote scheme with states banding together is constitutional, there will be a court challenge if enough states enact these laws.

A good point that we see in the actual text of the Constitution is that each state legislature decides how to appoint electors. All states currently do so based on the popular vote in their states.


20 posted on 05/17/2007 2:30:20 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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