You need 2/3rds majority to pass the constitutional amendment required to make this happen, so as long as Republicans exist this isn't going to ever be the case. It means they'll never win another election.
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Not just that, you then need 3/4 of states to sign off on an amendment before it takes effect. More than 1/4 of states benefit from the electoral college, which makes it a hard sell.
There's also that interstate compact (which if it ever takes effect will be challenged in court on grounds that interstate compacts are supposed to be approved by Congress), which is also highly unlikely to take effect for the same reason - there aren't 270 electoral votes worth of states that are either big enough that the electoral college hurts them or willing to hitch themselves so going along with whatever the two or three largest states want.
He is absolutely right that it should be scrapped, or failing that, every eligible voter in every state is automatically enrolled in the electoral college and their ballot is also their vote cast in the college, i.e. render the whole thing a technical irrelevance. It shouldn't even be seen as a political thing. Votes in deep red states are just as disenfranchised as those in deep blue states. Voting Republican in California or New York is as disenfranchising as voting Democrat in Texas. So if democracy is the intent, then it should be scrapped and not left to the usual "swing state" BS.
Ah, but that is the thing - democracy is not the intent. It may be the intent of some, but it is not the intent of the system as a whole.
Yes, the United States is a representative republic, and not technically a democracy.
I'm willing to switch to an electoral trial by bake off.
Here is the thing that scares me. If Republicans make every election cycle this shitty and horrible to witness over and over again I'm going to be so fucking sick of elections in less than a decade.
This exercise of over and over again deteriorating the experience of elections will wear down a part of the populace into saying "FINE! Fuck elections! Go get a king so that I don't have to listen to hateful bilious invective for 9 months out of the year."
I can't be the only one in fear of that type of fatigue to fascism.
This could actually open up the space for third parties. Just need to remove winner-takes-all.
Finally the dems are saying it out loud. They should have been yelling this from the treetops since Bush vs Gore.
It's easy to say and harder to do anything about. I believe it would take a constitutional amendment to fix on the national scale, or "opt-in" from enough states on the state level.
The first step towards change is elevating the conversation to high office, though, so this is something.
Completely agree!
The popular vote contract sounds interesting, but I like ranked voting more because it allows flexibility in sampling the public opinion of who they'd want. Think of any question a poll could ask you where you feel there isn't a clear yes/no or single answer. Isn't it better when it allows you to pick from a few choices that together reflect your answer? An election not only could turn out more voters, it could give statistical nuances on how people lean among the ones that voted in the winner. Eg., how many that voted both Democrat candidate as well as certain other parties.
Just had a thought that we could even see a person vote Democrat and Republican on a ticket. But at least they got their vote in and showed how they're torn.
This and Ranked Choice Voting.
Wow, that's crazy a VP candidate for one of the two parties is actually saying this.
Respect.
"but then it would be majority rule!! no faaaaaairrrrr"
-the party of fuck your feelings get over it
If you live in a state that hasn't joined the NPVIC push your state legislature to adopt it.
That'd be great!!!
I live in a deep red state. My vote won't matter as my states EC votes will go for the Republican candidate.
A popular vote would make my vote count finally.
The far easier plan is to simply increase the size of the House of Representatives. All it needs is a change, or repeal, of the Re-Apportionment Act of 1929. Replace it with something like the Wyoming Rule and done.
Not only does that fix Presidential Elections it would also fix or substantially ease a pile of other problems like Gerrymandering by giving the denser population areas the Representation they should have.
The HoR being fixed at only 435 seats is at the core of so many problems in this country.
Nah, even then the smaller populated states like mine have an outsized influence because it is senate (2) + house (population) number of votes per state. Our votes don't deserve to count more for the head executive (President) that represents everyone.
I think you're missing the bigger picture. Right now there is 535 votes, 100 from the Senate and 435 from the House.
If the House were expanded to 574 (Wyoming Rule, based on 2010 population data) there would be now be 675, which reduces the relative weight of the Senate's votes by nearly 1/3rd.
Nothing says it has to be the Wyoming Rule either, we could set a fixed ratio of Citizens to Representatives say 250,000 to 1. Now the HoR would have nearly 1,000 people in it and the Senate would be down to just 10% of the EC votes.
Frankly the HoR should be 1,000 seats or larger. A body of only 435 or even 574 is too small to accurately represent the interests of almost 340,000,000 people.
That would make the electoral college vote closer to proportional, but wouldn't solve the fundamental problem that small states will always have a disproportionate impact on the outcome as long as we use the electoral college system that is based on the sum of senate + house.
We should fix it as you note for the House to be truly representational of the population though.
there wouldn't be a republican president ever again. they won't allow this
What if, now he's me out, they started to adopt popular policies?
Repubs want an electoral college, because it's the only way they can win
Repubs want to keep gerrymandering because it's the only way they can win
I was shocked when I first heard about some people deciding, instead of how many people actually voted for a candidate.
Apparently some Americans were, too.
Not to mention that a popular vote would be much more secure, and cheaper.
The republicans will see this as a threat to their way of life. Idiots.