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Supreme Court case in the making? Maybe. This strikes me as a nullification-type crisis in the making. President - he of the $20 bill, stilll - took decisive action to end that constitutional challenge.
It can pass but yes, that does not mean it will stand.
Fun Fact:
If the above would have been in effect in 2016 Trump would still have won, although his Electoral margin would have been less. Trading one EC vote from South Dakota for 20 or so from California is a no brainer.
I'm not quite sure how you arrive at that conclusion. If the NPV was in effect, it means that there's 270-worth of EV in the compact. And those votes go to the winner of the popular vote. He did not win the popular vote, so he would have much less than 270 EV.
The Electoral College exists to prevent the popular vote from electing the POTUS. If we go to the popular vote we have, in effect, mob rule. Whichever candidate wins the popularity contest would win the election. That's great if the winner is the one you agree with, but what happens when the person who wins is completely opposite of you ideologically?
I'm not quite sure how you arrive at that conclusion. If the NPV was in effect, it means that there's 270-worth of EV in the compact. And those votes go to the winner of the popular vote. He did not win the popular vote, so he would have much less than 270 EV.
I was talking about proportional awarding of EC votes, not the NPV. Which I view that as an end around the Constitution.
And I still wonder, if it were implemented, how many states would actually follow through. I believe that all, or all but one, of the states currently "pledged" to it are reliably Democratic in Presidential elections. Maryland is one and knowing many/most of the members of the state Legislature I see no way in Hell that this state would assign EC votes to a Republican who doesn't carry the state, compact or no compact.
The Electoral College exists to prevent the popular vote from electing the POTUS. If we go to the popular vote we have, in effect, mob rule. Whichever candidate wins the popularity contest would win the election. That's great if the winner is the one you agree with, but what happens when the person who wins is completely opposite of you ideologically?
And that would be different from how it is now, how?
What is the point of voting if there is no chance that the person you want to win can actually win?
The current system deflates voting participation because too many people believe, rightly so, that their votes don't count.
Something needs to be done to encourage more people to vote.
This probably isn't it, but at least it has started a dialog.
And that would be different from how it is now, how?
What is the point of voting if there is no chance that the person you want to win can actually win?
The current system deflates voting participation because too many people believe, rightly so, that their votes don't count.
Something needs to be done to encourage more people to vote.
This probably isn't it, but at least it has started a dialog.
Everybody says that but where's the proof? It certainly isn't in the usual turnout for state and local elections which tends to be way less than in Presidential years. And those state and local elections certainly are ones where a person's vote counts.
The reality is that over the last 50 or so years that voter participation has slowly, and maybe not so slowly, declined.
People use the typical "My vote doesn't count" bull**** (I've been involved in 5 vote difference elections so yeah, your vote counts) to "I can't get off work" (even though polls are open, typically, for 12 hours and there are also absentee ballots) to "I don't want to have to do jury duty" (which is now taken from driver's license holders in many states).
And that would be different from how it is now, how?
If you are unsure of how the EC works, look it up. I'm not giving lessons on it today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TigerLily24
What is the point of voting if there is no chance that the person you want to win can actually win?
I have voted third party in the last 4 POTUS elections. The chance of my candidate winning is pretty much zero every time I vote, but I'm still going to vote for the candidate that I want to win rather than the lesser of two evils that the major parties give us, with the hope that eventually the rest of the nation will figure out how screwed up our two-party system is and jump ship with me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TigerLily24
The current system deflates voting participation because too many people believe, rightly so, that their votes don't count.
Something needs to be done to encourage more people to vote.
This probably isn't it, but at least it has started a dialog.
Every vote counts now in assigning electors. If you want to encourage people to vote, stop telling them that their vote doesn't count. If we switch to a popular vote, California and New York will be electing every president from now on, with a couple of smaller but populous states joining in. Again, if you agree with the people in California and New York that may not be a bad thing - but eventually California is going to jump the shark even in the minds of most liberals, and what happens then?
I believe we should go in the opposite direction. Each state should be given one electoral vote based on the winner of it's popular vote. 50 states......50 electoral votes. No state should wield more political power than another.
I was talking about proportional awarding of EC votes, not the NPV. Which I view that as an end around the Constitution.
And I still wonder, if it were implemented, how many states would actually follow through. I believe that all, or all but one, of the states currently "pledged" to it are reliably Democratic in Presidential elections. Maryland is one and knowing many/most of the members of the state Legislature I see no way in Hell that this state would assign EC votes to a Republican who doesn't carry the state, compact or no compact.
Oh I see. Correct, if the EV was rewarded proportionally in 2016, I think it would have been 269-269 or 270-268 in favor of Trump.
I think all these questions of "would they follow through" are moot anyway. All these states listed in the compact are disenfranchised states that don't see any "presidential action" in form of campaigning anyway. In my opinion, when then signed onto this bill they agreed to do it knowing that their EV right now has no value anyway. So what is there to lose? However, I think common Americans, like you and I and our C-D colleagues would likely say to ourselves "Yeah, if we agreed to this NPV, we'd send the agreed upon electors even if it went against how our state voted." That's how normal people think. Politicians though... you never know when they might hold an emergency session and back out of the NPV.
The Electoral College exists to prevent the popular vote from electing the POTUS. If we go to the popular vote we have, in effect, mob rule. Whichever candidate wins the popularity contest would win the election. That's great if the winner is the one you agree with, but what happens when the person who wins is completely opposite of you ideologically?
You do realize that senators, governors, house representatives, etc are all voted by popular vote... wait no sorry...ahem... mob rule; as per your own definition. It is fine to make the argument that the election of the president should be done differently and the reason why is.... <insert your reason here>? But it is something else to say we simply cannot elect a president by popular vote even though nearly every other elected office in the country is by elected by popular vote.
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