Movement For Popular Vote Growing

[BayCityProgressive]

This is great news! It's sad that certain politicians put their party interrests over what the majority of the people want!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/ap_on_el_pr/president_popular_vote

[porkrind]

1. Please kick and recommend this folks!

This is important. The electoral college is anti-democratic. It's a way for the establishment to keep control of the vote. It makes key battleground states where money can be concentrated and elections swayed. It disenfranchises anyone who doesn't live in FL, CA, OH, or NY.

Getting rid of this is a good step toward making the popular vote useful again, and will interest and empower people to vote and get involved. This is a good thing.
:)

[BayCityProgressive]

2. Of course

the Hollywood Nazi vetoed it. If our governors wont pass it...we should start putting it on ballot initiatives. In my opinion we should have a popular vote, no gerrymandering, and a unicameral legislature.

[peacebuzzard]

5. for sure

[Recursion]

12. Today the Electoral College, tomorrow the Senate

I'm sick of pretending that a Montanan is 10 times as important as a Californian....

[rinsd]

13. OK what would change the disenfranchised?

So instead of a few battleground states along with NY & CA you would have instead the largest population centers along with NY and CA.

"
Getting rid of this is a good step toward making the popular vote useful again,"

How is the popualr vote useful?

"and will interest and empower people to vote and get involved."

Really how? Do you find people refusing to vote because of the electoral college? How will this empower voters outside of the top 10 population centers that will then become election central?

[Pab Sungenis]

15. Actually, it OVER-franchises a lot of people

who live in Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Alaska.

The Electoral College is nothing but welfare for Republican candidates.

[williesgirl]

3. K&R

[porkrind]

4. kick (n/t)

[The Count]

6. Ahrnuld vetoed it - keep electing those GOP governors, people, the plan is working!

It's so clearly an anti-democratic situation, the head spins! (and I am talking about the existence of the electoral colleges - to be sure)All over the world, votes are equal, only in the "first democracy in the world" (Powell's schmucky words, not mine), they aren't! For shame!

[slackmaster]

10. Governator was right to veto this turkey IMO

I am in favor of a nationwide popular vote, but the proposed workaround is unconstitutional IMO. It would effectively disenfranchise voters in states that awarded their electoral votes contrary to the popular vote within the state.

The only proper way to eliminate the EC is by constitutional amendment.

It's so clearly an anti-democratic situation, the head spins!

Why replace one anti-democratic situation with an even more anti-democratic one? That's just plain retarded.

[NoSheep]

7. K&R

[RB TexLa]

8. I guess since I live in a top ten urban area and the 2ed most populace state

I should be for this, I mean screw people in small states and rural areas that want their concerns addressed, right? :sarcasm:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. You prefer the reverse? As it is now.

[FourScore]

11. I agree. People should read Hamilton's

writings on the Electoral College in The Federalist Papers. Some historical context would be helpful in recognizing potential problems if the this were really to get changed. (Which I doubt will happen since it would take a constitutional amendment ratified by 3/4 of the states. Not likely to happen.)

At least read this:

"The Electoral College was created for two reasons. The first purpose was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President. The second as part of the structure of the government that gave extra power to the smaller states.

The first reason that the founders created the Electoral College is hard to understand today. The founding fathers were afraid of direct election to the Presidency. They feared a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power..."

http://www.multied.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html

[SoCalDem]

14. Another thing.

Back when we started, people were DAYS apart from each other's farms sometimes, and there were not roads to speak of..and even if there had been, LOTS of people were illiterate.

the EC was a "bridge"..(kind of a throwback to what this country was created to PREVENT, but anyhoo.. the "betters" would know whom to elect..)

With the technology we have now, there's really no reason to have the EC, but the people who got there WITH it are the very ones who would have to propose the change..the ones who LOST due to it do not have the power to change it..

That's why it won;t change