Thursday, November 17, 2016

Removing the Electoral College from elections in the USA would end the 'power' states and return the vote to the people.

It would return the value of every vote to the country. Every state - every vote. I sincerely believe the Electoral College was useful in the day it was created, but, it inhibits full participation of the electorate. The fifty state strategy would return sincere majorities to the presidential election as down ballot elections do today. The US Senate and House are determined by the popular vote and not any special circumstance.

There should be recognition of the popular vote in the proceedings of the Electoral College. There is no legal recording of the popular vote in the federal system as there is in the state systems.

Isn't it the Vice President that over sees the Electoral College? This year the Vice President should introduce the popular vote into the proceedings of the Electoral College. Vice President Biden needs to set precedent this year and record the popular vote and the fact the country has outgrown the Electoral College. Vice President Biden needs to review the history and obsolete findings of the Electoral College and record the first time this consitutional hurdle is to be discussed every time the Electoral College meets. It is important to introduce new concepts to that consitutional provision. With such dialogue it may even be challenged through the courts.

Removing the Electoral College will most likely effect gerrymandering as well. There would be less reason to create gerrymandered districts when the Electoral College is amended. The courts have acted on that in the past, too. Those court decisions could be entered into the record to reflect the unfairness of the Electoral College. The unfairness is established based in removing the importance of the people's every vote.

The Office of the Federal Register, (click here) on behalf of the Archivist of the United States, prepares Electoral College instructional materials for the Archivist to send to the governors of the 50 States and the mayor of the District of Columbia....

Removing the Electoral College would demand every aspect of oppression of the vote be lifted and Voter ID could return to simply a signature at the time of balloting.

These are the instructions (click here). The forms sent to the federal government from the states should also include the popular vote. A dialogue about this can be conducted during the Electoral College meeting this year. I am sure there is a recording secretary or a video tape or an audio tape to the proceedings. I prefer the recording secretary that generates a paper copy of the proceedings. Every member of the Electoral College should receive a copy of the proceedings as well. It is a historic moment and the objection to the Electoral College going forward in 2000 should have been the beginning of the record.

The people of the USA need real change and not simply political manipulation. Vice President Biden should determine the scope of such a change and enter a written assessment of the impacts of the Electoral College to the entire process in the USA. When I make testimony to the USA Federal Register through federal hearings of the people it is with a written record following verbal testimony. Vice President Biden needs to consider doing exactly that. There needs to be a period of public comment before the consitution is amended.

Ulimately, ending the Electoral College would also reduce costs to the people and the districts when absentee ballots no longer are necessary. A USA citizen could vote anywhere in the USA with the understanding they have sufficient identification to prove they are citizens. Such a practice will take time and practice to eliminate errors. I don't see such widespread change taking place without dual systems in place and the new method proven CORRECT.

Start the process.

November 17, 2016
By Med Anderson

Every four years, (click here) the Electoral College creeps back into the lives of American voters. In some presidential elections, the strange, indirect system used to select the next U.S. president can feel like a formality that doesn't seem to matter much.

In other elections, it matters very much indeed. This is one of those years.

On Nov. 8, Donald Trump surpassed the necessary electoral votes to become the nation's president-elect. But if you look at the popular vote, which is the direct number of votes cast, Hillary Clinton beat Trump by about 1 million votes.

He's the fifth person to win the presidency this way. The most recent was George W. Bush in 2000. The other three times all happened in the 1800s.

It's been an extremely divisive election, and a lot of people this year are having trouble accepting the outcome. Some — like California Sen. Barbara Boxer — have argued in the wake of the results that it's time to get rid of the current system altogether.

The Democrat introduced legislation Tuesday that would abolish the Electoral College and use the popular vote instead to determine the presidency. She has public opinion behind her. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 63 percent of Americans would get rid of the electoral college....