The attempt to dismantle the electoral college begins. SCOTUS to hear arguments.

[Circe]

You CAN'T prejudice the vote that way. Nobody in a city, a rural area, a state that begins with a consonant, or any other random criterion should count any more, or less, than everybody else's. We haven't done anything like that since Slavery.

It is apparent that your understanding of what the Electoral College is all about is materially different from that of most people here, including me. To be fair to you, the Wall Street Journal agrees with you: that it was an arcane device now outmoded. I think it DOES function currently to give smaller states a chance to have a voice and could be improved to give populations within states a better chance to have their votes counted if the winner-take-all by state rule was gotten rid of.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

The Left is proposing a Majority takes all approach.
That is the antithesis of the purpose of the electoral college.

The major problem with the electoral college is it brings with it a chance for corruption. That used to not be a very severe problem as it is today.

No matter what system of checks and balances is put in place, corruption can undermine it, left unchecked.

Actually, corruption is wreaking havoc on our entire political system today. such as the Kavanaugh debacle, the Russian Collusion Hoax and now the use of Impeachment as a political weapon.

 

[Circe]

Not sure if you answered the point that such a system would then lead to widespread gerrymandering to game the system (?)

No, I left that point, because I'm not very impressed with the effectiveness of gerrymandering. I am aware that Democrats in North Carolina recovered two seats by pursuing that issue in law. I think that issue is limited, however, and am not concerned with it.

 

[Circe]

The major problem with the electoral college is it brings with it a chance for corruption. That used to not be a very severe problem as it is today.
No matter what system of checks and balances is put in place, corruption can undermine it, left unchecked.

Sure. The electors in 2016 were pursued mercilessly, around the clock, threatened and approached with bribes continually. I followed that issue with interest. POSSIBLY in consequence, fully ten, more than ever before, became "faithless electors." It occurs to me that blackmail about secrets could be even more of a powerful motivator for vote changing by electors than bribery. This has to stop by reforming the law.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

The major problem with the electoral college is it brings with it a chance for corruption. That used to not be a very severe problem as it is today.
No matter what system of checks and balances is put in place, corruption can undermine it, left unchecked.

Sure. The electors in 2016 were pursued mercilessly, around the clock, threatened and approached with bribes continually. I followed that issue with interest. POSSIBLY in consequence, fully ten, more than ever before, became "faithless electors." It occurs to me that blackmail about secrets could be even more of a powerful motivator for vote changing by electors than bribery. This has to stop by reforming the law.

Spot on. Thank you.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

The OP is exactly why it was so critical that better appointments to the various courts be made urgently. The courts have become nothing more than political tools.

Their first consideration being political agenda.....with Americas best interests nowhere to be seen.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

Did you find a Mod who you could get to ban me yet Pogo? No doubt you are trying.

 

[Dr Grump]

You can't start excluding voters based on where they live, that's absurd.

Well, we're trying to. That's the point of the Electoral College as currently operated: for votes in smaller rural states to count more. I support that. Take that away and give every election to the big bad cities and the nation falls.

Total BS. So you are saying the minority should have more of a say over the majority. How benevolent of you...

 

[Circe]

So you are saying the minority should have more of a say over the majority. How benevolent of you...

That's it --- you got it. That's how the Electoral College currently functions, and I like it.

 

[Pogo]

You CAN'T prejudice the vote that way. Nobody in a city, a rural area, a state that begins with a consonant, or any other random criterion should count any more, or less, than everybody else's. We haven't done anything like that since Slavery.

The system has been working for several hundred years and all of a sudden Communists want to change everything.....

Only reason Communists are upset is because Orange Man is going to be re-elected.

"Several hundred years"?

"Communists"?

The historical black hole way bigger than we thought. Really, "several hundred years"? How old do you think this country IS?

 

[Bob Blaylock]

You've lost all.touch with reality.

Says a mentally-defective freak who believes that there are six genders.

Anyone who believes that is in no position to cast aspersions on anyone else's grip on reality.

 

[Pogo]

Not sure if you answered the point that such a system would then lead to widespread gerrymandering to game the system (?)

No, I left that point, because I'm not very impressed with the effectiveness of gerrymandering. I am aware that Democrats in North Carolina recovered two seats by pursuing that issue in law. I think that issue is limited, however, and am not concerned with it.

Maybe you're only aware of Carolina but it's a chronic problem everywhere. But that's done by state government parties-in-power, for their own exploitation. Set up a scheme like Electoral votes coming from districts, and you've redefined what a district is for the national stage. That means national Duopoly elements come charging in to expand that chronic problem exponentially --- for exactly the same reason they now obsess over so-called "battleground states" It's a Pandora's Box.

It seems to make sense on the surface to decentralize and spread out the EVs but I'm afraid all you've done is to take the same corruption potential you already articulated and spread it to the district level. And only a monstrosity like the Duopoly has the power and resources to tweak them to their benefit, and tweak they will on Day One you can be sure. Then we have a morass of 435 instead of a morass of 50. All of these tweaks serve to filter whatever the election results actually were, to what the political party with the most power wants to tweak them INTO.

 

[Pogo]

The major problem with the electoral college is it brings with it a chance for corruption. That used to not be a very severe problem as it is today.
No matter what system of checks and balances is put in place, corruption can undermine it, left unchecked.

Sure. The electors in 2016 were pursued mercilessly, around the clock, threatened and approached with bribes continually. I followed that issue with interest. POSSIBLY in consequence, fully ten, more than ever before, became "faithless electors." It occurs to me that blackmail about secrets could be even more of a powerful motivator for vote changing by electors than bribery. This has to stop by reforming the law.

If we're going to use Electors they should be unidentified. However they have to be identified to somebody since the state selects them, so that contingent will always be in a position to influence and I suspect, happens to some degree every election. If there was more of it in 2016 that's likely a product of how split the country was, the electorate as a whole and fifteen states individually settling on no candidate at all. See, again, post 161 still sitting there.

For that matter so-called "faithless elector" laws ALREADY influence them in a way that's no secret to anybody.

 

[M14 Shooter]

Supreme Court to Look at Electoral College Rules
Depending on the outcome this could be the beginning of the end of our nations great experiment.

This will have the greatest effect on the inane "National Popular Vote Compact" , where states, by law, give their electors to whoever gets the most votes in the "national popular vote" - if the court rules the electors cannot be assigned according to a vote count from outside the state, then the compact fails and the EC is safe.

 

[M14 Shooter]

Wouldn't it be fun if an opening came up now and Mitch put impeachment on hold to confirm a new Justice.

Rather delicious.

 

[Pogo]

Supreme Court to Look at Electoral College Rules
Depending on the outcome this could be the beginning of the end of our nations great experiment.

This will have the greatest effect on the inane "National Popular Vote Compact" , where states, by law, give their electors to whoever gets the most votes in the "national popular vote" - if the court rules the electors cannot be assigned according to a vote count from outside the state, then the compact fails and the EC is safe.

The Court isn't considering "whether electors can be assigned according to a vote count from outside the state". The Court is hearing arguments about whether a state can dick-tate to its own Electors how they will vote. Try to keep up.

Of course, if the SCOTUS rules that states may indeed do that, that paves the road FOR the NPV.

 

[Dr Grump]

So you are saying the minority should have more of a say over the majority. How benevolent of you...

That's it --- you got it. That's how the Electoral College currently functions, and I like it.

So you like dictators. Okay...

 

[Circe]

So you are saying the minority should have more of a say over the majority. How benevolent of you...

That's it --- you got it. That's how the Electoral College currently functions, and I like it.

So you like dictators. Okay...

What does a dictatorship have in common with the Electoral College?? Answer: nothing at all.

I see you're just a lightweight. Non-sequitur answers intended as insults are not useful; I suspect you are not useful. Up the quality of your posts or yours are off my reading.

 

[Dr Grump]

What does a dictatorship have in common with the Electoral College?? Answer: nothing at all.

I see you're just a lightweight. Non-sequitur answers intended as insults are not useful; I suspect you are not useful. Up the quality of your posts or yours are off my reading.

Oh, I thought you were capable of lateral thinking. Obviously I have to spell it out literally for you. If the minority are in charge, they are dictating to others what they should have to do. That is how dictators work. They bully, threaten and cajole people into their POV because it is unpopular. That is why they are the minority.