Tags

, , , ,


“The bill has passed 31 legislative chambers in 21 jurisdictions (AR, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, MI, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, RI, VT, WA). In the recent 52–7 New York State Senate vote, Republicans supported the bill by a 22–5 margin (with 3 not voting) and Democrats supported it by a 30–2 margin. The bill has been endorsed by 2,110 state legislators.” What happened to the Electoral College? Usurped by the National Popular Vote compact.

The purposed or function of the Electoral College has been debated for years, generally every 4 years, in fact! But it DOES have purpose. “The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote.’

“Equality is fundamental to representative democracy. Everyone’s vote should be equal when electing the president. Our current Electoral College system, grounded in state law, leads presidential candidates to concentrate their resources on voters in a handful of swing states, relegating the vast majority of the country to spectator status. FairVote advocates for direct election of the president, and has nurtured and supported the National Popular Vote plan to ensure that every vote for president is equally valued no matter where it is cast.”

Is this the Election change we really want??? Think this through people!

“On May 12 former Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) was named a co-champion of the National Popular Vote (NPV) campaign to replace the historic, constitutional role of the states and electoral college in presidential elections with a purely democratic national popular vote.

There’s a new wrinkle in the old game of manipulating the outcome of elections: A single organization is behind a massive, well-orchestrated lobbying effort in virtually every state to restructure presidential election procedures. The wealthy California-based National Popular Vote (NPV) group is bent on reforming the way Americans have elected their president via the requirements contained in the Constitution by hijacking the Electoral College in a way that perverts its original purpose of allocating electoral votes to states based on their population rather than disregarding the states and basing the winner on the purely democratic national popular vote.”

I don’t know about you, but this is the first I’ve even heard of this, and frankly, it startles me! Every presidential election the debate arises over the purpose of the Electoral College. And every time it arises, it is also confirmed to be the most equitable, most fair system. What I particularly do not like about this NPV campaign, is that is has been created in stealth! My warning lights go off any time something is done in ‘secret.’

This is how it would work:

While NPV and its marketing line may sound good, their movement to have individual states enter into an interstate compact regarding how presidential elections are decided would make a fundamental change in the role of the Electoral College without the necessity of a formal amendment to the Constitution with its requirement of 38 states for ratification. The NPV plan would allow as few as 18 states entered into the compact to effect the changeover for the entire nation, because these 18 states currently have the 270 electoral votes which would constitute a majority in presidential elections. Once this compact has member states with 270 or more electoral votes, then a majority of electoral votes cast in an election would automatically go to the winner of the national popular vote, thus eliminating the role of state vote totals.

Relevant to the discussion is the U.S.Constitution! The Twelfth Amendment covers the process to be used in the election of the President and Vice-President.

  • Fifteenth Amendment


“Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

  • Nineteenth Amendment

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Law school is not in my list of accomplishments, but it sure seems to me this NPV compact contradicts, or at the very least, compromises the rights of individual states AND individual Americans to voice their choice with meaning!

Added 6/5/11 @ 1015 I really feel like I’m missing something here, that the ambiguity is clouding the REAL issues. I found this article this morning for your perusal. “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote.” The fact that this has sneaked in under the radar, and that the New York Times fully supports the measure, well … “The National Popular Vote bill has been enacted into law in states possessing 77 electoral votes — 29% of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the legislation.” The more I think about this, the more uncomfortable I am about it. “The bill preserves the Electoral College , while ensuring that every vote is equal and ensuring that every vote will matter in every state in every presidential election.”(italics & underline mine) While we ALL want every vote to matter and every vote to be equal, I don’t see how this bill makes that happen any better than what is currently done. In fact, it looks less true! What it looks like to me is that rather than the Electoral votes award being a STATE by STATE event, in this proposition, it will become a NATIONAL event. If it is UNFAIR on a STATE level, will it be MORE FAIR when determined NATIONALLY? I will begin a conversation with my representatives on this issue tomorrow! At first glance, it appears to be non-partisan effort, but … I wonder?

About these ads