patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
1,261,335 comments by 15,062 users - Al_Sharpton_for_President, goofus, GreaterNYCDude, WookieMan online now
Pennsylvania GOPers Propose Splitting State’s Electoral Votes
invite response
2011 Sep 13, 11:30am 5,302 views 29 comments
« First « Previous Comments 9 - 29 of 29 Search these comments
Truthplease
2011 Sep 14, 4:51am
The election system needs an upgrade in my opinion. I don't see why we couldn't do a popular vote. Hell, I bank and pay taxes online. Why can't I cast a vote online. One SSN, equals one vote. Keep the polls open for the poor people who don't have computers.
I don't want to hear any rants about what our founding fathers thought on voting either. They only believed land owning white males should be the voters.
Truthplease
2011 Sep 14, 5:11am
But abolishing the EC...that's amendment territory.
Well, that is probably never going to happen. The EC can be manipulated which would get rid of power.
Yup, you don't want to hear about reality as it is. That pesky constitution!
Pretty sure he meant that he doesn't care what the founding fathers wanted - his interest is in improving the system.
I've got loads of concerns about evoting, though. Sounds great - and surely there's *some* way to do it right, but we haven't seen it yet. Paper trails can be faked but the mass of paper makes it harder to hide evidence and more likely that someone will notice. The lines of code that subtly alter votes and determine outcomes can delete themselves after doing their dirty work.
HousingWatcher
2011 Sep 14, 12:43pm
"Currently Maine (blue) and Nebraska (red) have it and you don't see them complaining about it, either."
Looks like you spoke too soon:
"Be it resolved that the Nebraska Republican Party will not support in any manner, financial or otherwise, any state senator who opposes the return of the state to the "winner-takes-all" electoral vote plan either by failing to vote for such in committee or on the floor of the legislature."
HousingWatcher
2011 Sep 14, 12:46pm
What do you mean? The Nebraska Republican party is demanding a return to the winner take all system and is threateneing to destroy the career of any state senator who opposes it.
I said the Obambi wasn't serious in getting Americans back to work...he just wants to appear to be doing it while also trying to blame the Reps for not doing so. $300 billion in a $15 Trillion economy supports my theory...that Obambi is just full of shit as I stated, for the reasons I stated.
What would you do to increase jobs? Please be specific and give ideas, not vague principles.
HousingWatcher
2011 Sep 15, 2:56am
How do you create jobs? That is easy:
Notice that tax cuts are all the way at the bottom, hence they have the least stimulative effect.
Why do you act like I am supposed to answer your bogus questions?
You criticize, but you have no ideas. Just pointing that out yet again. All you do is bitch, but you have no substance or facts or ideas, as always.
bdrasin
2011 Sep 15, 3:43am
What do you mean? The Nebraska Republican party is demanding a return to the winner take all system and is threateneing to destroy the career of any state senator who opposes it.
Yes, Obama won Omaha's district and got 1 more electoral vote than he would have under a winner-takes-all system. Not that he needed it.
I don't really like the electoral college or the winner-takes-all-by-state system, but its mischievous for some states to have it and others not. Maine and Nebraska are very unlikely to decide an election for obvious reasons, but it would be terribly unbalancing for this to happen in a big state.
Where in the Constitution does it give states the right to split their electoral votes?
Article 2 section 1.
A basic highschool government class would have told you that.
Yes Gore did win the popular vote in 2000...
But in 1912, 1916, 1948,(1960 is debatable) 1992 and 1996 (all of which were democrats) the person that became president did not win the majority of the popular vote either. Heck Wilson one before receiving only 40% of the vote.
Technically it's the states that actually vote not people.
The argument really is if we should have a winner take all concept within the states. We've seen landslides in electoral votes but that didn't exactly mean a landslide in the popular vote (look at 1980)
In Mass we are debating simply following the popular vote and giving our ev's by default..personally I think that's stupid.
Personally I would recommend the following:
1) The primary season should be shortened. No more of this 6 to 6 1/2 month drag out. Make it one to two months. Go in order of least to most (so that way it increases equity to a point) so territories first one week..last week could be CA, TX, NYC etc or simply regionalize it for a month or so by time zone.
2) Presidency should be changed with an amendment to one six year term. It costs us too much to have a president run for reelection
3) Extend the number of representatives by 100 and increase the term from two years to three. No incoming freshmen reps will be able to do anything because one year they are learning the ropes and the second they are running for reelection.
If the campaign doesn't end then nothing can get done.
FortWayne
2011 Sep 17, 2:02am
they need to change it universally, winner take all is a bad representation.
HousingWatcher
2011 Sep 17, 10:08am
We could save even more money and time by not having any elections at all and instead have a dictatorship. A dictatorship is an excellent idea, just as long as I'm the dictator.
Extend the number of representatives by 100
This is an interesting suggestion. I've thought for a while that the current 435 limit didn't really make sense any more because the representative to population ratios had gotten out of whack.
zzyzzx
2011 Sep 20, 2:27am
One SSN, equals one vote. Keep the polls open for the poor people who don't have computers.
Should be one taxpayer, one vote. those who don't pay any income taxes shouldn't have the right to vote.
zzyzzx
2011 Sep 20, 2:29am
We could save even more money and time by not having any elections at all and instead have a dictatorship. A dictatorship is an excellent idea, just as long as I'm the dictator.
I'd be OK with APOCALYPSEFUCK as dictator.
Vicente
2011 Sep 20, 2:37am
Should be one taxpayer, one vote. those who don't pay any income taxes shouldn't have the right to vote.
Extend that to corporations. Those who pay no taxes, are not allowed to expend any funding on PACs or other political lobbying activities.
Truthplease
2011 Sep 20, 6:06am
Should be one taxpayer, one vote. those who don't pay any income taxes shouldn't have the right to vote.
I hate saying this because it will probably sound bad. It should be one taxpayer, one vote, with an education qualifier. You must at least have a HS diploma and pass a test on the fundamentals of government. Maybe a college education?
That probably is a really horrible thing to think.
I was just thinking of that movie Idiocracy. It shows the educated people becoming extinct because the ignorant people reproduce more. Eventually we believe electrolites are what plants crave.
If stupid people outnumber the smart people, then the stupid people won't understand the consequences of what they are voting for.
MisdemeanorRebel
2011 Sep 21, 4:42am
What about tests for politicans? That's where we need tests.
We need a Voigt Kampff machine ASAP, and administer it to all candidates prior to them being allowed on the ballot.
This would be a huge achievement for mankind.
American in Japan
2011 Sep 22, 4:45am
How many are actually for this on principle rather than politics. Suppose it could be done for all states?
Pennsylvania Republicans, who won the governorship and full majority control of the legislature in 2010, are now setting their sites on a major change — to the state’s Electoral College votes, which have been regularly won statewide by Democrats for 20 years, to the winner-take-all system used by nearly all the states.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/a-foot-on-the-scale-pennsylvania-gopers-propose-splitting-states-electoral-votes.php
#politics