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

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 "The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately.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: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:08PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:08PM (#428366)

    Even better, what is the offer to those smaller States which currently tend to have unified (Legislature + Governor) Republican governments because of the never ending gift that has been President Obama?

    No, the Blue Team should fear what might do to them instead. If we were smart and ruthless we would make a list of light blue States (when voting for POTUS) where Republicans control the State government. Then Astroturf up a pair of movements in each, one using Democrat sounding rhetoric and talking points of greater "Democracy" and such rot and the other a much more quiet appeal to naked power aimed at the Republican base. Then have those States, and only those States, adopt the same rules as ME an NE to allocate Electoral votes by Congressional District. Now instead of the Blue Team reaping the whole total in those States they get the couple of districts inside the rotting urban cores and the two for winning the State, but Team Red collects a few too from the rest of the State. Across a half dozen States this tactic could move the baseline a dozen or more EVs toward the generic Republican ballot.

    And one more wave election could easily give Team Red a large enough majority at the State level to push Constitutional Amendments. Btw eliminating the Electoral College would require one of those, something Team Blue is absolutely not in any sort of position to even seriously dream of. Which means Senator Boxer is really the blithering idiot she has projected in public since gaining the office or she is just virtue signaling and trying to rally her base's moral, she isn't in any way serious about her effort in either case.

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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:18PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:18PM (#428371)

    An interesting proposal if you could get some momentum behind it. In theory, even though they don't want to switch to proportional electoral college voting, if their Republican legislatures are locking them to it in some states, it would be in their best interest to pull the same maneuver in the reverse situation.

    More cynically, I'm sure it wouldn't be that simple. They'd kick and scream and come up with some other plan, I bet.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by jmorris on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:53PM

      by jmorris (4844) on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:53PM (#428409)

      Not saying there might not be long term consequences, but right now there are no Red States on the Presidential level where Team Blue has any real power in the state. As of now they have total control of exactly four States. CA, OR, HI and one of the little blue shitholes up on the East Coast which I can't remember off the top of my head right now. We are in a position to have our way with em and end this yammering about the inevitable force of History about to end the Republicans chances forever. Make the change I propose (which I didn't invent, been hearing about it on the Right Side of the Web for a bit now) and add in Trump clearing the Sanctuary Cities of a few million people who shouldn't be voting but we know do and the numbers shift in our favor a lot. As the illegals exit, 'incentivize' the multi-generation slum dwellers into taking the 'jobs we pay Americans not to do' and in a decade a lot of them will have risen into becoming taxpayers, again removing vast numbers of them from the automatic D voter rosters.

      Btw, We know the illegals vote because we keep seeing people like Obama exhort them to vote, the cities enact rules that basically say "Non Citizens aren't technically allowed to vote but lookie here we have a rule that says it is illegal for an election official to even ask if a potential voter is a U.S. Citizen and we have handed out ID cards to every illegal we could find. But we pinkie swears no illegals are voting. Trust us, we print ballots in thirty languages for no particular reason at all!" and the entire policy and platform of the Democratic Party (and the RINOs) built around the notion of getting the votes of people who prefer to wave Mexican flags at protests over American ones.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday November 17 2016, @10:46PM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday November 17 2016, @10:46PM (#428447) Journal

        Please do, just wait until I'm across the border. I can't WAIT to see what you frothing lunatics do with all three branches of the US government in your control. This will be hilarous (from the right distance).

        The best part is, when all of you motherfuckers and up in Hell, you'll STILL be tearing each other to shreds! I'll bring the s'mores fixins and make desert over the heat of whichever caldera you assholes land in. Scream real long and loud; it circulates the hot air nicely.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by jmorris on Thursday November 17 2016, @11:05PM

          by jmorris (4844) on Thursday November 17 2016, @11:05PM (#428465)

          Please do, just wait until I'm across the border.

          K. Just remember though, no fair running to Canada because it is far too white for you to signal your commitment to Diversity. Go to Mexico or somewhere brown or black... if you can get in, they don't just let anybody in you know. They might not want you, just sayin'. They have something called a border and they enforce it.

          • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 18 2016, @04:10AM

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday November 18 2016, @04:10AM (#428642) Journal

            I find it very telling that the only kind of people who say "virtue signalling" unironically are those who have no virtue whatsoever to begin with. My only reaction to just about everything you post in response to be is, and can only be, "Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!"

            You poor bastard, you have no idea what you and your kind are in for. You've been played, AGAIN, by the same people who've had the same agenda for half a century. And you like it. Un-bloody-believable. Well, enjoy your trip to Hell :/

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
            • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 18 2016, @01:10PM

              by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday November 18 2016, @01:10PM (#428807) Journal

              I don't think that people are going to sit still if it turns out the way you suppose. The best thing the 1% could do for themselves is to acquiesce to reform; if they fight it or subvert it like usual, all will come to blows.

              --
              Washington DC delenda est.
          • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 18 2016, @04:17AM

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday November 18 2016, @04:17AM (#428648) Journal

            Oh, incidentally, I intend to go to Vancouver, which is about 25% ethnic Chinese last I checked. Which is nowhere near as much as my hometown Flushing, but will feel nicely familiar and will help my girlfriend (Cantonese by way of Malaysia) adjust easier. You were trying to say something about diversity...? God, you fail even when you think you have a point.

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 18 2016, @01:13PM

              by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday November 18 2016, @01:13PM (#428809) Journal

              Vancouver is a great city, but Canada is too close. A lot of people who didn't like the way things were going in Germany fled to Poland or France thinking they'd be safe. If America were to blow up in the same way, there's hardly any place in the world that would be truly safe, but Canada would definitely be wiped out by the initial blast. Try Australia or New Zealand.

              --
              Washington DC delenda est.
              • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 18 2016, @05:28PM

                by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday November 18 2016, @05:28PM (#428940) Journal

                Australia isn't any safer, as they seem to be competing with Britain for who can become a fascist surveillance state fastest. New Zealand is also on my list, though. There's always the teach English in Japan route, though I do worry that if China gets salty I'll just end up eating a nuke if go there. Ditto South Korea, plus I can barely read Hangul. Ugh, the entire planet's gone insane...

                --
                I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:19PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @06:19PM (#429508)

              Oh, the classic "I have a minority friend so I'm not racis" ploy... :D

              • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday November 20 2016, @11:46PM

                by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday November 20 2016, @11:46PM (#430209) Journal
                You're a special kind of idiot, you know that? Where I grew up, I WAS the minority! Nearly everyone was Cantonese and there were more Pakistani and Punjabi people than any sort of euro-whites. And we all got along fine. I didn't hear a single racist slur in either direction until sixth grade. More of the signs were in Chinese than English. I've learned a bunch of herbal medicines and some TCM principles on top of some ordinary food recipes; my girlfriend says I cook like her grandmother and that this is a good thing,

                Know where I feel weird? Here in southern Wisconsin. Being surrounded by white people feels bizarre. It'll be a relief to go somewhere more familiar-seeming. You would think this would put to rest once and for all the idea that we're born racists.
                --
                I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday November 17 2016, @10:07PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday November 17 2016, @10:07PM (#428423)
      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday November 17 2016, @11:07PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday November 17 2016, @11:07PM (#428466)

        Yeah, recently New York signed it so they're 61% of the way there now.

        Alternately, rolling out proportional EC voting across the country would satisfy me, too.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday November 18 2016, @04:17AM

        by Reziac (2489) on Friday November 18 2016, @04:17AM (#428649) Homepage

        Given which states have enacted it into law, methinks this is designed and intended for the home team's advantage.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by TheRaven on Friday November 18 2016, @10:56AM

        by TheRaven (270) on Friday November 18 2016, @10:56AM (#428782) Journal
        It's worth noting that this compact works because the states are allowed to select their EC delegates and control how they vote in any way that they want. It would be entirely possible to have a similar compact that would also introduce instant runoff or AV elections, with the state votes having all of the electorate rank the candidates and the EC delegates picking the least-unpopular one.
        --
        sudo mod me up