What a bunch of bologna. The American election process is from another planet. That’s due to happen on 12 December, at meetings in each state where all Republican or Democrat representatives – depending on how each state voted – will cast their vote. And it will almost certainly go one way, with most of the electors casting their ballots for Donald Trump and making him President But that could, theoretically, not happen. Members of the electoral college could potentially change their mind – becoming what is known as a “faithless elector” – and so cast their ballot for somebody else, or not at all. The phenomenon of the faithless voter is giving people hope that perhaps Donald Trump won’t actually become the President of the US. It’s almost impossible that it would make any difference, but it does show that Donald Trump’s path to presidency might not be simple.
What a bunch of bologna. The American election process is from another planet. That’s due to happen on 12 December, at meetings in each state where all Republican or Democrat representatives – depending on how each state voted – will cast their vote. And it will almost certainly go one way, with most of the electors casting their ballots for Donald Trump and making him President But that could, theoretically, not happen. Members of the electoral college could potentially change their mind – becoming what is known as a “faithless elector” – and so cast their ballot for somebody else, or not at all. The phenomenon of the faithless voter is giving people hope that perhaps Donald Trump won’t actually become the President of the US. It’s almost impossible that it would make any difference, but it does show that Donald Trump’s path to presidency might not be simple.
It's not likely to happen but is part of the design. There have been "faithless electors" in the past but most acted on their own and not part of some organized effort. It would take a largely organized effort to swing the EC by the amount needed. It would also likely cause extreme instability, but of course one could argue that a Trump presidency could do the same.
the point of the electoral college was to prevent a state like California from dominating the popular vote...the president was seen as a representative of the states of the union and not that of the people so they gave all the states a fair chance in an election...it also prevented intimidation of stealing votes from people who could be bought or bullied into changing a vote
I cannot believe how many people are questioning the electoral college, its mind boggling...no way, no how the popular vote should be the way to go
did anyone take Civics in college or read anything to do with the founding fathers???
currently california has 55 electoral college votes ... that currently ALL go towards the democrat in the election ... that's 55 out of 538 or just over 10% ...
there are about 18 million registered voters in california ... 146 million in the US ... so, if ALL californians voted democrat - that would be 12% ... but we know that 62% of californians voted democrat ... so, if there was some format that considered popular vote or proportional representation - californian democrats would only be able to influence 8% of the national vote ... at least now the 32% who voted republican in california would get a say ... instead of 100% of the electoral college votes going for the democrat ...
how does that not make any sense...what i explained was exactly why the electoral college was set up
a state like California can sway an election due to the population size...the EC was set up so that the same few states wouldn't determine an election and its worked no matter how hard people try to tell us that FL, OH, and PA are the swing states?
If you take away the EC, then suddenly the republican candidate feels the need to campaign there. Would he get more than 50% of the vote? Probably not. But he could cut into the democrat's margin in CA and those votes for him in CA would matter in the big picture.
Then if your system was based on popular vote she'd be president-elect...but your system doesn't work that way...
Yeah no shit Einstein.
Why are you bringing up the popular vote...elections are winner takes all and in this case it appears the unlikeliest of republican candidates delivered the republicans the whole show ... Einstein ... some of you who proclaim to be on the left sure are sore losers, must because your used to being awarded participation ribbons.
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Then if your system was based on popular vote she'd be president-elect...but your system doesn't work that way...
Yeah no shit Einstein.
Why are you bringing up the popular vote...elections are winner takes all and in this case it appears the unlikeliest of republican candidates delivered the republicans the whole show ... Einstein ... some of you who proclaim to be on the left sure are sore losers, must because your used to being awarded participation ribbons.
I found it interesting so I posted it. We all know how elections work. We don't need your sarcastic bullshit comments.
The last two republican presidents were elected without getting more votes than a democrat.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
It's not ironic. At the end of the day it demonstrates that you can't control the will of the people in a fair and just election. President-elect Trump won fair and square and no amount of hunkering down to try and defeat him will do anything. American people voted, it's done.
Then if your system was based on popular vote she'd be president-elect...but your system doesn't work that way...
Yeah no shit Einstein.
Why are you bringing up the popular vote...elections are winner takes all and in this case it appears the unlikeliest of republican candidates delivered the republicans the whole show ... Einstein ... some of you who proclaim to be on the left sure are sore losers, must because your used to being awarded participation ribbons.
I found it interesting so I posted it. We all know how elections work. We don't need your sarcastic bullshit comments.
The last two republican presidents were elected without getting more votes than a democrat.
if you don't like the system, sign the online petition ... work to change it, it seem Clinton and your current POTUS are willing to live with the outcome .... unfortunately so many of you missed why Trump won, and it has 0 to do with racism ... the disenfranchised finally had someone speaking out against these ridiculous trade agreements...
I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
Absolutely true.
I don't know where to stand on the issue. With a popular vote everyone has a vote that is weighted exactly the same. Idealistically this is best. In practice, that means that the elections become a match-up of urban vs rural as half the population lives in a few 10's of the thousands of counties. City folk already think their way of life is universal and I wouldn't want that to get any worse, but I'm the first to bash the backwards, neandethal hillbillies for their political and social opinions. This leaves me undecided.
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
It's not ironic. At the end of the day it demonstrates that you can't control the will of the people in a fair and just election. President-elect Trump won fair and square and no amount of hunkering down to try and defeat him will do anything. American people voted, it's done.
You would understand the irony if you understood anything about the founding fathers of the U.S.--or if you bothered to educate yourself at all on the matter before your reactionary response.
But I know better than to expect an informed response from the likes of you.
^^^ Well perhaps the founding fathers got it wrong. Put an x in the box for who you want to win. Even a Neanderthal could've come up w/ a voting system like that.
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
It's not ironic. At the end of the day it demonstrates that you can't control the will of the people in a fair and just election. President-elect Trump won fair and square and no amount of hunkering down to try and defeat him will do anything. American people voted, it's done.
You would understand the irony if you understood anything about the founding fathers of the U.S.--or if you bothered to educate yourself at .
I think I began to stop educating myself about your ridiculous voting system after learning about the faithless elector. While pollsters, pundits, statisticians and political analysts were lost in their glen beck flowcharts real people got out and voted. That is how you have President-elect Trump.
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
Bingo
No, not bingo...he is completely wrong...please once again has anyone besides me taken a Civics class or studied the electoral college? It was meant to serve the purpose that it did even in this election
and you say the founders were misguided? they are smarter than most people in Washington right now with the exception of people like Rand Paul
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
Bingo
No, not bingo...he is completely wrong...please once again has anyone besides me taken a Civics class or studied the electoral college? It was meant to serve the purpose that it did even in this election
and you say the founders were misguided? they are smarter than most people in Washington right now with the exception of people like Rand Paul
Rand Paul is a moron. Get a new hero.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
A: The framers of the Constitution didn’t trust direct democracy.
FULL QUESTION: Why does the United States have an Electoral College when it would be so easy to directly elect a president, as we do for all the other political offices? FULL ANSWER: When U.S. citizens go to the polls to “elect” a president, they are in fact voting for a particular slate of electors. In every state but Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who wins the most votes (that is, a plurality) in the state receives all of the state’s electoral votes. The number of electors in each state is the sum of its U.S. senators and its U.S. representatives. (The District of Columbia has three electoral votes, which is the number of senators and representatives it would have if it were permitted representation in Congress.) The electors meet in their respective states 41 days after the popular election. There, they cast a ballot for president and a second for vice president. A candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes to be elected president. The reason that the Constitution calls for this extra layer, rather than just providing for the direct election of the president, is that most of the nation’s founders were actually rather afraid of democracy. James Madison worried about what he called “factions,” which he defined as groups of citizens who have a common interest in some proposal that would either violate the rights of other citizens or would harm the nation as a whole. Madison’s fear – which Alexis de Tocqueville later dubbed “the tyranny of the majority” – was that a faction could grow to encompass more than 50 percent of the population, at which point it could “sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.” Madison has a solution for tyranny of the majority: “A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.” As Alexander Hamilton writes in “The Federalist Papers,” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” The point of the Electoral College is to preserve “the sense of the people,” while at the same time ensuring that a president is chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.” In modern practice, the Electoral College is mostly a formality. Most electors are loyal members of the party that has selected them, and in 26 states, plus Washington, D.C., electors are bound by laws or party pledges to vote in accord with the popular vote. Although an elector could, in principle, change his or her vote (and a few actually have over the years), doing so is rare. As the 2000 election reminded us, the Electoral College does make it possible for a candidate to win the popular vote and still not become president. But that is less a product of the Electoral College and more a product of the way states apportion electors. In every state but Maine and Nebraska, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. So if a candidate wins a state by even a narrow margin, he or she wins all of the state’s electoral votes. The winner-take-all system is not federally mandated; states are free to allocate their electoral votes as they wish. The Electoral College was not the only Constitutional limitation on direct democracy, though we have discarded most of those limitations. Senators were initially to be appointed by state legislatures, and states were permitted to ban women from voting entirely. Slaves got an even worse deal, as a slave officially was counted as just three-fifths of a person. The 14th Amendment abolished the three-fifths rule and granted (male) former slaves the right to vote. The 17th Amendment made senators subject to direct election, and the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote.
The tragic irony here is that the misguided founders instituted the electoral college so that something like this wouldn't happen.
Bingo
No, not bingo...he is completely wrong...please once again has anyone besides me taken a Civics class or studied the electoral college? It was meant to serve the purpose that it did even in this election
and you say the founders were misguided? they are smarter than most people in Washington right now with the exception of people like Rand Paul
Misguided and stupid are not synonymous. Perhaps you need a thesaurus so that can you refrain from making misguided retorts.
And I imagine that most Americans who finished high school have taken a civics class in which they studied the electoral college and why it was controversially deemed necessary. (It was required in the state of Florida.)
The difference may be that some of us actually paid attention.
What about your constitution, time to get rid of it ... right? Countries evolve as you say...
Get rid of the electoral college...then what a direct vote, so a few of the heavily populated states decide the election...
No, but we need to adjust the constitution. The same thing happens with the 2nd amendment being invoked when it doesn't apply. If we stuck to the original constitution, only white males would be electing presidents.
,” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
,” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
Comments
That’s due to happen on 12 December, at meetings in each state where all Republican or Democrat representatives – depending on how each state voted – will cast their vote. And it will almost certainly go one way, with most of the electors casting their ballots for Donald Trump and making him President
But that could, theoretically, not happen. Members of the electoral college could potentially change their mind – becoming what is known as a “faithless elector” – and so cast their ballot for somebody else, or not at all.
The phenomenon of the faithless voter is giving people hope that perhaps Donald Trump won’t actually become the President of the US. It’s almost impossible that it would make any difference, but it does show that Donald Trump’s path to presidency might not be simple.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/uselection/donald-trump-could-still-not-become-president-because-of-‘faithless-electors’-and-the-electoral-college/ar-AAk9WWY?li=AAadgLE&ocid=spartandhp
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
The last two republican presidents were elected without getting more votes than a democrat.
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
At the end of the day it demonstrates that you can't control the will of the people in a fair and just election.
President-elect Trump won fair and square and no amount of hunkering down to try and defeat him will do anything.
American people voted, it's done.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I don't know where to stand on the issue. With a popular vote everyone has a vote that is weighted exactly the same. Idealistically this is best.
In practice, that means that the elections become a match-up of urban vs rural as half the population lives in a few 10's of the thousands of counties.
City folk already think their way of life is universal and I wouldn't want that to get any worse, but I'm the first to bash the backwards, neandethal hillbillies for their political and social opinions.
This leaves me undecided.
we will find a way, we will find our place
But I know better than to expect an informed response from the likes of you.
Well perhaps the founding fathers got it wrong.
Put an x in the box for who you want to win.
Even a Neanderthal could've come up w/ a voting system like that.
While pollsters, pundits, statisticians and political analysts were lost in their glen beck flowcharts real people got out and voted.
That is how you have President-elect Trump.
and you say the founders were misguided? they are smarter than most people in Washington right now with the exception of people like Rand Paul
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
And I imagine that most Americans who finished high school have taken a civics class in which they studied the electoral college and why it was controversially deemed necessary. (It was required in the state of Florida.)
The difference may be that some of us actually paid attention.
But the thing is, people evolve. Countries evolve. It is time to get rid of the electoral college.
Get rid of the electoral college...then what a direct vote, so a few of the heavily populated states decide the election...
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
I think we have entered this scenario.