Electoral College a thing of the past?

Swift19 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-10-2008, 11:43 AM

Plan would sidestep Electoral College

By NGUYEN HUY VU, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - If John R. Koza gets his way, American voters will never again have to wonder about the workings of the Electoral College and why it decides who sits in the White House.

Koza is behind a push to have states circumvent the odd political math of the Electoral College and ensure that the presidency always goes to the winner of the popular vote.

Basically, states would promise to award their electoral votes to the candidate with the most support nationwide, regardless of who carries each particular state.

"We're just coming along and saying, 'Why not add up the votes of all 50 states and award the electoral votes to the 50-state winner?'" said Koza, chairman of National Popular Vote Inc. "I think that the candidate who gets the most votes should win the office."

The proposal is aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2000 election, when Al Gore got the most votes nationwide but George W. Bush put together enough victories in key states to win a majority in the Electoral College and capture the White House.

So far, Maryland and New Jersey have signed up for the plan. Legislation that would include Illinois is on the governor's desk. But dozens more states would have to join before the plan could take effect.

The idea is a long shot. But it appears to be easier than the approach tried previously — amending the Constitution, which takes approval by Congress and then ratification by 38 states.

The Electoral College was set up to make the final decision on who becomes president. Each state has a certain number of votes in the college based on the size of its congressional delegation.

Often, all of a state's electoral votes are given to whomever wins that state's popular vote. For instance, even someone who wins New York by a single percentage point, 51-49, would get all 31 of the state's electoral votes.

This creates some problems.

One is that candidates can ignore voters in states that aren't competitive. If the Democrat is clearly going to win a state, the Republican has no reason to court its minority of GOP voters there and instead will focus on other states.

Another problem is the possibility of a result like that in 2000, where one candidate gets more votes overall but the other candidate gets narrow victories in just the right states to eke out a majority in the Electoral College.

National Popular Vote says its plan would change all that.

"What's important to the country is that it would make presidential campaigns a 50-state exercise," said Koza, a Stanford University computer science professor.

Here's how it would work:

States forge an agreement to change the way they allocate general election votes. The agreement would take effect once it's been approved by states with a majority in the Electoral College, or 270 votes.

At that point, the states would begin awarding their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who carries each state.

If the candidates tied in the popular vote, each state would give its electoral votes to the candidate who carried that particular state — basically the same system used now.

There are critics. The downside, they argue, is that a close presidential election would require recounts not just in one or two key states, but throughout the entire country.

They also say it would further reduce the influence of small states as politicians focus on such places as voter-rich California, New York and Texas.

"Any way you look at it, I think smaller populations have a greater voice under the current system than they would under a national popular vote system," said North Dakota state Rep. Lawrence Klemin, a Republican who voted against joining his state in National Popular Vote's agreement.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has not decided whether to sign his state's legislation to join the plan, his office said. When he was in Congress, Blagojevich co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College in 2000.

Legislation endorsing the National Popular Vote plan was passed in California and Hawaii but vetoed by their governors. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it would run "counter to the tradition of our great nation, which honors states' rights and the unique pride and identity of each state."

Koza believes the agreement proposal would standardize the way states award their electoral votes, give every voter equal influence and keep candidates from ignoring some states in favor of battleground states like Ohio and Florida.

He noted that neither presidential candidate visited Illinois in 2004, even though it has a population of about 12.8 million.

"The Republicans wrote it off and the Democrats took it for granted," Koza said, "and that's typical of two-thirds of the states."

Plan would sidestep Electoral College - Yahoo! News

I know this is yahoo news but this seemed really important and i don't see yahoo news posts show up on the front page

Chase_the_Bass · 02-10-2008, 12:25 PM

I don't think that the position of Commander and Chief should be a popular vote. I think that the current system just needs a bit of a revamp.

**Ristaron** · 02-10-2008, 01:19 PM

I have always wondered why it hasn't been a popular vote. Such would seem to make sense.

In Canada we don't vote by candidate, rather by party (Liberal, Conservative, Green, Progressive Conservative, Reform, Canada Action Party, etc). And those votes are counted individually so that it is a victory by "popular vote". The person who leads the party that is victorious is the person who becomes the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister chooses his cabinet, and they decide the key issues that the country should decide upon.

None of this "Key Province" bullshit.

Static · 02-10-2008, 02:04 PM

This seems like a good idea on the surface, and at first I thought I would be 100% behind it, but I see a problem already, what if the majority of the country, the regular voters, constantly vote for someone you disagree with? There really wouldn't be anything you could do about it. And since the mainstream media spits out MCCAIN HILLARY OBAMA over the loudspeaker, and don't even mention other candidates...it's likely that more than half the country wouldn't even realize who is actually running, and shit like this would STILL continute to happen. There's too many people who just don't give a fuck out there for a system like this to work. I think it would take a lot more public support to change the way they're rigging the elections.

Chase_the_Bass · 02-10-2008, 02:13 PM

If this happened I think the amount of money spent campaigning would skyrocket. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 20x more. It would all be commercials. Suddenly it's not about values it's about appearance.

**Brother of Yeshua** · 02-10-2008, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chase_the_Bass

If this happened I think the amount of money spent campaigning would skyrocket. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 20x more. It would all be commercials. Suddenly it's not about values it's about appearance.

Isn't it already that way now?

I agree with static. This system just restructures the way we are manipulated. With the public so indoctrinated into ignorance, this system just makes it less difficult for the elites. No longer do they have to hack elections, they just have to tighten their stranglehold through the media.

El Pirata · 02-10-2008, 06:48 PM

as long as it works in real life, and not just on paper its fine with me. then again, there will probably be even more tampering with the already insecure as shit voter boxes.

AndtheDaysGoBy · 02-10-2008, 10:16 PM

to me this is the only way that makes sense.. i mean the popular vote is the vote of the people. to win an entire state because the majority of the state voted for you pretty much means the people who didnt vote for you wasted their time voting at all. i think you should win because you won the most votes throughout the country not because you won the most votes in certain states