Abolish the "ridiculous" Electoral College

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by D. Scarlatti

I suppose one question that still remains is, How does abolishing the electoral college in favor of direct election of the president reduce existing state power, given the other structural components of federalism that serve to protect states' rights, such as their representation in Congress, and the simple fact that states retain plenary power, whereas the federal government's powers are enumerated and limited.

Yeah. That's what I meant.

Anyways, I fixed it.

We need to add 12 electors to the electoral college, and I've reapportioned them appropriately.

Note a couple of things:

1. I just now had to figure out how to use Excel, so I was too tired to handwrite the HTML, so it's stupid looking. It works in Firefox for me, but it's ugly. I know that. Don't tell me about it.

2. The Little Muffin helpfully retitled the 'Population' column 'Butt Sex.' This makes it less boring. Just for you, vm.

3. I think you can basically tell how I did it, but the shaded rows are averages. The one in the actual 'Average' column is the average size of the states with n number of electoral votes. This data is meaningless, but I didn't realize that until I had already done it, so there you have it. The number in the 'Bloc per Elector' column is the average bloc size for the same group. What I said before.

4. In the final column are the reapportioned electoral votes. I've indicated a loss of votes from the old system with red, and a gain with blue.

5. Now, where do I submit this to get it implemented?

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by lisarea

2. The Little Muffin helpfully retitled the 'Population' column 'Butt Sex.' This makes it less boring. Just for you, vm.

It's like he's in my head.

I'm sorry, btw, if any of y'all interpreted my earlier comment hostily. I just think it's kinda silly to accuse people of being lazy or stupid or otherwise incompetent because they can't understand our political system. It seems pretty obvious to me that Joe Average is not going to have the time or inclination to decipher all the complexities, but he's likely to get a lot of shit at work if he doesn't "do his part" and "rock the vote". So what're the choices? Guess. Literally.

Also it does occur to me that convincing potential revolutionaries that they can "work with the system" and change it for the better (even if that 'better' lies 4, 8, 12, or 50 yrs. down the road) would be a pretty effective method of protecting the status quo. I mean that's what I would think if I was a conspiracy theorist.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by lisarea

We need to add 12 electors to the electoral college, and I've reapportioned them appropriately.

Oh, fuck me!

Know what I did? FORGOT MY WHOLE DAMNED CRAPASSED POINT is what.

I left off the last column, which shows the relative value of votes for different states:


Wyoming 3.12
Vermont 2.53
Alaska 2.45
North Dakota 2.40
South Dakota 2.04
Delaware 1.97
Montana 1.71
Rhode Island 1.96
Hawaii 1.69
New Hampshire 1.66
Maine 1.61
Idaho 1.59
Nebraska 1.50
West Virginia 1.42
New Mexico 1.41
Nevada 1.29
Utah 1.15
Arkansas 1.15
Kansas 1.15
Mississippi 1.08
Iowa 1.23
Connecticut 1.06
Oregon 1.05
Oklahoma 1.04
South Carolina 1.02
Kentucky 1.02
Colorado 1.07
Alabama 1.04
Louisiana 1.03
Minnesota 1.04
Arizona 1.00
Maryland 0.97
Wisconsin 0.96
Missouri 1.01
Tennessee 0.99
Washington 0.96
Indiana 0.93
Massachusetts 0.97
Virginia 0.94
North Carolina 0.96
Georgia 0.94
New Jersey 0.92
Michigan 0.88
Ohio 0.90
Pennsylvania 0.88
Illinois 0.87
Florida 0.87
New York 0.84
Texas 0.84
California 0.83

[viscousmemories]

And I thought the point was just another thing I didn't get...

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by lisarea

Oh, fuck me!

Know what I did? FORGOT MY WHOLE DAMNED CRAPASSED POINT is what.

I left off the last column, which shows the relative value of votes for different states:


Wyoming 3.12
Vermont 2.53
Alaska 2.45
North Dakota 2.40
South Dakota 2.04
Delaware 1.97
Montana 1.71
Rhode Island 1.96
Hawaii 1.69
New Hampshire 1.66
Maine 1.61
Idaho 1.59
Nebraska 1.50
West Virginia 1.42
New Mexico 1.41
Nevada 1.29
Utah 1.15
Arkansas 1.15
Kansas 1.15
Mississippi 1.08
Iowa 1.23
Connecticut 1.06
Oregon 1.05
Oklahoma 1.04
South Carolina 1.02
Kentucky 1.02
Colorado 1.07
Alabama 1.04
Louisiana 1.03
Minnesota 1.04
Arizona 1.00
Maryland 0.97
Wisconsin 0.96
Missouri 1.01
Tennessee 0.99
Washington 0.96
Indiana 0.93
Massachusetts 0.97
Virginia 0.94
North Carolina 0.96
Georgia 0.94
New Jersey 0.92
Michigan 0.88
Ohio 0.90
Pennsylvania 0.88
Illinois 0.87
Florida 0.87
New York 0.84
Texas 0.84
California 0.83

To think, I used to live in Wyoming, where my vote actually counted for something. Uh, I think Dick "Go Fuck Yourself" Cheney was my congressman at the time. Uh, nevermind.

[Strict Separationist]

Originally Posted by dantonac

California(D), New York(D),Florida (D or R) and Texas(R) are the 1st,2nd and 3rd, and 4th largest states by population. Combined they would control the elections and the other 46 states could just stay home if we didn't have an electoral college.

I registered just for the sake of pointing out that although this argument is often used by defenders of the Electoral College, it is extremely misleading. Only if these states voted almost entirely unanimously could they alone decide the election, and that has never happened before. In other words, no states would be disenfranchised--it would simply be the case that in a national election, a citizen's vote would count the same regardless of the area in which s/he resides.

Edit: Oh, and I completely agree with warren that the States no longer serve any real function, and that it is time to look into abolishing them altogether. I suspect this will not be politically feasible for at least a few centuries to come, however.

[livius drusus]

That's a damn good reason for registering, I'd say. Welcome. Can I interest you in a little Constitutional Convention?

[dave_a]

Originally Posted by Strict Separationist

I registered just for the sake of pointing out that although this argument is often used by defenders of the Electoral College, it is extremely misleading.

While I am glad you registered, I hate to break it to you, but I think I conceded this point already. I was not thinking clearly when I made this statement.

Edit: Oh, and I completely agree with warren that the States no longer serve any real function, and that it is time to look into abolishing them altogether.

Now this I am not ready to concede. Bring it on, newbie

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by dantonac

While I am glad you registered, I hate to break it to you, but I think I conceded this point already. I was not thinking clearly when I made this statement.

Fine. In that case, I think we should give 55% of the votes to Utah and Wyoming, and the rest of the states should be merged and called Fuckistan. Except for South Dakota, which will be for girls. Only Republican votes will be counted as valid in Utah and Wyoming, and we'll declare martial law in Fuckistan, so voting will be cause for arrest, so as to discourage costly and Unamerican protest votes. South Dakota gets one electoral vote, but that's only for shit like tampons vs. maxi pads, plus American Idol stuff.

And yes, there will be a spreadsheet.

[Dingfod]

Lisa, that was some funny shit there. Thanks for the good belly laugh.

South Dakota is for girls... and economic girlie-men. No offense meant Goliath.


Warren, from deep with the darkest Fuckistan

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by Nil Desperandum

Here in Colorado, a resolution is going to be on the ballot in November to have the electoral votes doled out by proportional representation!

It'll probably die a hideous, screaming death at the polls, but I'm sure as hell voting for it. Some folks don't realize that there's no federal constitutional requirement that states allocate their electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis. State measures such as this are a decent incremental step toward the eminently desirable goal of shitcanning the electoral college altogether. That likely won't happen in my lifetime, but it would be nice to get the proverbial ball a-rollin' in the right direction.