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Ending the US Electoral College

posted by janrinok on Thursday November 17 2016, @07:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-is-your-vote-worth? dept.

quintessence writes:

Senator Boxer Introduces Bill to Eliminate Electoral College

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Senator-Boxer-to-Introduce-Bill-to-Eliminate-Electoral-College--401314945.html

"This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency," Boxer said in a statement. "The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts."

[...] "When all the ballots are counted, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a margin that could exceed two million votes, and she is on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama," Boxer said.

Trump will be the fifth president in U.S. history to win the election despite losing the popular vote. George W. Bush won the most recent such election, in 2000.

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3wLQz-LgrM

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @08:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @08:31PM (#428333)

    Do we believe in the principle of one-man one-vote or not?

    Go ask your Congressman, maybe he can clue you in on that whole representative government thing.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @08:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @08:38PM (#428342)

    That's a non-sequitur. Congress is representative, but the electoral college isn't. State electors don't ever make their own decisions, they just vote whatever the popular vote results were. Technically they could vote however they felt like, though in about half the states that would be illegal and if it happened in any other states there would be a category 5 shitstorm.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:08PM (#428367)

      From Wiki, because it's about all the amount of effort that it's worth:

      The Constitution gives each state legislature the power to decide how its state's electors are chosen[66] and it can be easier and cheaper for a state legislature to simply appoint a slate of electors than to create a legislative framework for holding elections to determine the electors. As noted above, the two situations in which legislative choice has been used since the Civil War have both been because there was not enough time or money to prepare for an election. However, appointment by state legislature can have negative consequences: bicameral legislatures can deadlock more easily than the electorate. This is precisely what happened to New York in 1789 when the legislature failed to appoint any electors.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Friday November 18 2016, @02:24AM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Friday November 18 2016, @02:24AM (#428572)

    congress represents business interests.

    they stopped caring about us LONG time ago.

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."

    • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Friday November 18 2016, @04:29PM

      by fliptop (1666) on Friday November 18 2016, @04:29PM (#428910) Journal

      congress represents business interests

      Well, businesses do pay taxes too.

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

      • (Score: 1) by Fauxlosopher on Friday November 18 2016, @08:08PM

        by Fauxlosopher (4804) on Friday November 18 2016, @08:08PM (#429079) Journal

        Well, businesses do pay taxes too.

        US federal budget [cbpp.org] income sources [taxpolicycenter.org]:
        Excise, tariff, etc.: ~9%
        Corporate/business: ~11%
        Individuals: ~80%

        B-b-b-uhwait!, you say? Individuals only fund ~47% because businesses pay the matching/payroll tax? WRONG. Businesses pay workers what they figure to be a profitable wage for the business based on the usefulness of the worker. The wage is simple algebra: take-home wages (x), total wages (a), "business" payroll taxes (b), and employee payroll taxes (c): x = a - (b + c). "Matching payroll taxes" the "business pays" are indistinguishable from other wage costs - the total cost is what is being considered when offering an employee's wage. Therefore, businesses do not pay "payroll taxes" - the workers do!