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How to Fix the Electoral College

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Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#21

Post by tunesmith »

litoE wrote: post #8

Another approach that is in the works is the so-called States Compact whereby each state would assign all its electors to the candidate that gets the most votes nationwide . This has the advantage that no change to the Constitution is needed. Currently, several States have agreed to this, and the Compact will be activated once enough States sign on that provide more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the el…

The Supreme Court would probably strike this down once it threatens to activate.

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#22

Post by superfrank »

starik36 wrote: post #11
litoE wrote: post #8

Another approach that is in the works is the so-called States Compact whereby each state would assign all its electors to the candidate that gets the most votes nationwide . This has the advantage that no change to the Constitution is needed. Currently, several States have agreed to this, and the Compact will be activated once enough States sign on that provide more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the el…

How is this different from popular vote?

It's not and that's the point.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a way to choose the president by popular vote without the overhead of removing the electoral college.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Intersta...

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#23

Post by mhh__ »

tunesmith wrote: post #21
litoE wrote: post #8

Another approach that is in the works is the so-called States Compact whereby each state would assign all its electors to the candidate that gets the most votes nationwide . This has the advantage that no change to the Constitution is needed. Currently, several States have agreed to this, and the Compact will be activated once enough States sign on that provide more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the el…

The Supreme Court would probably strike this down once it threatens to activate.

How so?

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#25

Post by ToDougie »

fabiofzero wrote: post #24

Just get rid of it. Either go full on popular vote like everyone else with a president or go parlamentarian like everyone else with a prime minister. This system isn't truly democratic and should be abolished yesterday.

It isn't supposed to be "truly democratic".

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#26

Post by twoodfin »

duxup wrote: post #14
litoE wrote: post #8

Another approach that is in the works is the so-called States Compact whereby each state would assign all its electors to the candidate that gets the most votes nationwide . This has the advantage that no change to the Constitution is needed. Currently, several States have agreed to this, and the Compact will be activated once enough States sign on that provide more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the el…

So the electors are restricted to what they can do to some extent, but can the individual state tell the electors to do something that conflicts with what their own voters may have overwhelmingly voted against? That seems like it would inevitably fall apart. Also present a lot of mystery about "they going to do it?" and then someone doesn't and someone else chooses something else. Talk about a mess for democracy ...

You are, I believe, correct.

States can pick any means of selecting their electors that doesn’t conflict with other provisions of the Constitution. Obviously, a state imposing a requirement that electors be white or male would not fly.

OK, so they choose to have a state election. It must be a fair election, affording due process to all the voters as that is Constitutionally understood (one person, one vote, for example).

“We’ll have an election, but if national results go a different way, we’ll throw out the votes of the ‘wrong’ voters,” is … not that.

An analogy: Could the southern states agree to a compact to elect their governors by party slate? I doubt that would pass muster, and neither would the popular vote compact.

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#27

Post by tunesmith »

I wish these sorts of suggestions were less on the end of "here's what would be better" and more on the end of "here's how it would be possible". Anything that requires a magic wand to enact is a bit of a waste of energy. Would love to see more actual action plans on how to enact the change though.

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#28

Post by superfrank »

readthenotes1 wrote: post #17

Although we are often taught that it is slavery slavery slavery, the electoral college is also an attempt to prevent the tyranny of the majority - something the founding fathers were worried about. It is also easy to forget that we are called the United States for a reason. We were more like the EU than we are like France...

Is it? I'm no history buff, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the main way the founders attempted to avoid the tyranny of the majority was by having the Senate be two representatives per state regardless of size.

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#29

Post by _zagj »

litoE wrote: post #8

Another approach that is in the works is the so-called States Compact whereby each state would assign all its electors to the candidate that gets the most votes nationwide . This has the advantage that no change to the Constitution is needed. Currently, several States have agreed to this, and the Compact will be activated once enough States sign on that provide more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the el…

This approach, unlike the one in the OP, removes the per-state quarantining effect that the electoral college has on voter fraud. That makes it a non-starter for red states: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/california-gover...

Re: How to Fix the Electoral College

#30

Post by jmclnx »

Depending who is in office, one party will never go for this. The reason is states like California and maybe Florida/Texas will never allow this, it removes their advantage in the current electoral collage. Also it does not fix the population skewing for smaller states. Per voter, Wyoming voters have more power that people in Calif and Texas.

The better options is this, which will bring back the original intent of the US Constitution:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Rule

or the States Compact Option suggested by litoE above.

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