Can we please just go to a popular vote

[Fanatical Meat]

I'm tired of winning

 

[Fenixgoon]

at least as far as electoral votes go, i'd rather have it be proportional than winner-takes-all.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

at least as far as electoral votes go, i'd rather have it be proportional than winner-takes-all.

You mean that if 40% of Californians vote for the Republican nominee that the Republican nominee will get 40% of California's electoral votes? Sounds fair to me.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

at least as far as electoral votes go, i'd rather have it be proportional than winner-takes-all.

Even that doesn't work when some states have about 145K people per electoral vote while others have 500K people per EC vote. Representation should be proportional to population and were it truly proportional than you don't need the EC. Just puts you back to popular vote.

 

[theeedude]

No way small states voluntarily give up the advantages EC gives them.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Maybe its time to redistrict the states

 

[Paratus]

Even that doesn't work when some states have about 145K people per electoral vote while others have 500K people per EC vote. Representation should be proportional to population and were it truly proportional than you don't need the EC. Just puts you back to popular vote.

Yup. No more of that shit. For president who is the president of all of us 1 person 1 equal vote. There is nothing special about living in a rural state that makes them "more" equal than others.

Also make Election Day a federal holiday and we should be able to keep the minority party the minority party.

 

[Jhhnn]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact

 

[greatnoob]

Yup. No more of that shit. For president who is the president of all of us 1 person 1 equal vote. There is nothing special about living in a rural state that makes them "more" equal than others.

Also make Election Day a federal holiday and we should be able to keep the minority party the minority party.

1) Fine people who don't vote
2) Change to a preference-based voting system
3) Have a small test on the economic policies of each party and their respective effects on groups. Then weigh each vote based on their understanding.

That way your average Trumptard gets their say and it's weighted fairly - that is their votes are worth nothing unless they wisen the fsck up.

 

[trenchfoot]

Sad to say, but no matter if the overwhelming majority of the population prefer to institute the popular vote, "the powers that be", namely those folks who presently have a very firm grip on the steerage of the nation, they're not going to allow that from ever happening unless they can keep that control they presently profit immensely from.

 

[Genx87]

No way small states voluntarily give up the advantages EC gives them.

Pretty much this.

 

[ivwshane]

The electoral college was designed specifically to ensure people like trump weren't elected and it failed spectacularly. It serves no purpose now as far as I'm concerned.

 

[TheVrolok]

The electoral college was designed specifically to ensure people like trump weren't elected and it failed spectacularly. It serves no purpose now as far as I'm concerned.

Yep, this.

 

[fskimospy]

The presidency is the only elected office in the entire country where someone does not need a majority (or at least a plurality) of the votes of their constituents to win.

People often try to argue that means people will ignore rural areas/states. This is dumb for several reasons:

1) they are ignored now anyway. Every state that's not a swing state is.
2) if an area is being ignored because nobody lives there that is a feature, not a bug. Rural areas get enough special extra consideration as it is.

 

[sdifox]

President and veep should be one person one vote. Rest can stay the same.

 

[pmv]

The electoral college system seems weird to me. I don't see why 'areas' should be considered with regard to representation rather than people. Someone doesn't become more important because there are fewer people geographically close to them.

I saw an analysis somewhere that described how its become more of a problem as the span between low-population density and high-population density regions has both become much greater over the years, and has also become more aligned to political allegiances.

I don't like the way the EU parliament works for similar reasons (votes of people in smaller states worth up to 10 times as much as those of the larger ones). Though at least in that case it can be argued the relevant areas are actually independent nations and so require some sort of recognition as such, rather than just as collections of European citizens. But as the EU gets closer to a superstate that seems less-and-less defensible. (Not that it's the UK's concern for much longer!)

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The electoral college system seems weird to me. I don't see why 'areas' should be considered with regard to representation rather than people. Someone doesn't become more important because there are fewer people geographically close to them.

I saw an analysis somewhere that described how its become more of a problem as the span between low-population density and high-population density regions has both become much greater over the years, and has also become more aligned to political allegiances.

I don't like the way the EU parliament works for similar reasons (votes of people in smaller states worth up to 10 times as much as those of the larger ones). Though at least in that case it can be argued the relevant areas are actually independent nations and so require some sort of recognition as such, rather than just as collections of European citizens. But as the EU gets closer to a superstate that seems less-and-less defensible. (Not that it's the UK's concern for much longer!)

The simplest way to think of it is the Electoral College was supposed to prevent voters for either voting for something impossible like elect the King of England or Jesus it also was to prevent ties like if 12 different John Smiths ran who is the elected John Smith.
All these scenarios are meaningless today. Plus States have reigned in the Colleges power by saying they have to vote for who they are selected to represent.
The whole concept is dated and pushes our Politic to the far left and far right.

 

[cytg111]

get congress in 2018 and either get rid of Trump before hand or wait for 2020 .. and then kill gerrymandering once and for all.

 

[Grooveriding]

A democratic system that allows minority rule is a broken one that will eventually lead to disaster when the majority gets sicks of the minority setting policy.

I doubt it would be as bad for Americans if they had two sane political parties. The GOP is an extremist radical group though and that is more of a problem than an electoral system. When a political party deals in fiction and denies reality, you don't have any basis for legitimate discourse with them.

 

[fskimospy]

A democratic system that allows minority rule is a broken one that will eventually lead to disaster when the majority gets sicks of the minority setting policy.

I doubt it would be as bad for Americans if they had two sane political parties. The GOP is an extremist radical group though and that is more of a problem than an electoral system. When a political party deals in fiction and denies reality, you don't have any basis for legitimate discourse with them.

It doesn't speak for the long term health of a system that a party that has won the popular vote exactly once in the last seven presidential elections has controlled the presidency almost half the time.

 

[Paratus]

1) Fine people who don't vote
2) Change to a preference-based voting system
3) Have a small test on the economic policies of each party and their respective effects on groups. Then weigh each vote based on their understanding.

That way your average Trumptard gets their say and it's weighted fairly - that is their votes are worth nothing unless they wisen the fsck up.

Number 3 is a no go for me. To much room for abuse. That's very similar to the literacy tests used to disenfranchise minorities in the south.

Everyone has a right to participate in the political process as the right of government is derived by cosent of the governed.

I just want the actual minority party to be the minority party.

 

[cytg111]

1) Fine people who don't vote.

You could give a little tax break to those who do?

 

[Genx87]

1) Fine people who don't vote
2) Change to a preference-based voting system
3) Have a small test on the economic policies of each party and their respective effects on groups. Then weigh each vote based on their understanding.

That way your average Trumptard gets their say and it's weighted fairly - that is their votes are worth nothing unless they wisen the fsck up.

The road to tyranny is paved with gold.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Good summary and yes it impacts R voters as much

 

[ch33zw1z]

Voting should be holidays, all registered voters get it off.

States with less than 2/3 participation start losing EC votes.

And after all 50 hit 2/3, bump it to 3/4