On June 18, the Rhode Island House defeated the National Popular Vote bill, HB5569, by a vote of 28-45. The awareness that the Governor was likely to veto it anyway probably dampened support for the bill. Last year the legislature had passed the same bill, but Governor Donald Carcieri, a Republican, had vetoed it.
The National Popular Vote Plan bill in the Senate, SB161 (an identical bill), had passed the Senate on May 19. Theoretically the House could still pass SB 161, but that is unlikely.
A survey of 800 Rhode Island voters conducted on June 1, 2008 showed 74% overall support for a national popular vote for President.
Support was 78% among independents, 86% among liberal Democrats, 85% among moderate Democrats, 60% among conservative Democrats, 71% among liberal Republicans, 63% among moderate Republicans, and 35% among conservative Republicans.
By age, support was 77% among 18-29 year olds, 80% among 30-45 year olds, 70% among 46-65 year olds, and 76% for those older than 65.
By gender, support was 84% among women and 63% among men.
By race, support was 76% among whites (representing 90% of respondents), 60% among African-Americans (representing 4% of respondents), 54% among Hispanics (representing 2% of respondents), and 69% among Others (representing 5% of respondents).
see http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
Your misleading poll is more like a push poll to get the response you want.
So…this is the new meme, is it? The poll numbers are the result of “push polling?” Here, for the benefit of people with open minds, are the actual questions:
Q1 There is a proposal to change the way we elect
the President. The current system elects a
President based on the state by state vote
totals. The new proposal would switch to a
system that elects the President according to
the vote totals in all 50 states. Would you
generally support or oppose switching to a
system that counts the votes in all 50 states
combined? If you would support switching,
press 1. If you would oppose it, press 2.
Q2 If you are a woman, press 1, if a man, press 2.
Q3 How would you describe yourself politically,
given the choices of liberal Democrat,
moderate Democrat, conservative Democrat,
moderate Republican, conservative
Republican, and Independent. If you would
describe yourself as a liberal Democrat, press
1. If a moderate Democrat, press 2. If a
conservative Democrat, press 3. If a liberal
Republican, press 4. If a moderate
Republican, press 5. If a conservative
Republican, press 6. If other, press 7.
Q4 If you are white, press 1. If you are African
American, press 2. If you are Hispanic, press
3. If other, press 4.
Nothing above is remotely close to “push polling.”
Richard G. – what questions do you think represented “push polling?”
“Are you white?”
“Are you a liberal Republican?”
You boys are just throwing s**t at the wall now and hoping some of it will stick. If you have some substantive arguments to make against NPV, let’s hear them. But try to keep bald-faced lying out of the discussion, will you?
The legislature did a good job demonstrating the importance of federalism by defeating this bill. State legislatures have a vested interest in preserving as much power for the state from the Federal government as possible. RI’s size means that it gains significantly from the electoral college system. It effectively doubles RI’s representation in the national election. RI is already mostly ignored…a popular vote would result it in being forgotten.
#3. I thought mvymvy was the Susan meme.
Actually, the pollsters changed the questions that they used to use (like in Rhode Island). One wonders why.
#5 –
An eloquent, concise concession that your claim of a “push poll” in RI was totally unsupported.
Thank you, Jimmy.
#6 Barney Scrapple,
I made no claim that the RI poll was a push poll, but then they reworded it. Why? And how do Mvymvy, Susan, or yourself know that it was voters who picked up the autodialed calls?