The Montana House State Administration Committee will hold a hearing on SB 194 on March 8. This is the bill, written by the Commission on Uniform State Laws, to provide that each party, and any independent presidential candidate, must submit twice as many candidates for presidential elector as that state has votes in the electoral college. Half would be designated presidential electors and half would be designated alternate presidential electors. If a presidential elector voted against his or her party’s nominee for President in the electoral college, that elector would be deemed to have resigned and the alternate would vote instead.
The Commission on Uniform State Laws also seems to have succeeded in getting this bill introduced in Indiana, Nebraska, and Washington, although none of the bills in those states have made any headway so far, except that the Nebraska bill has had a hearing. The Washington bill, HB 1950, is dead for this year.
Abolish the timebomb Electoral College.
Remember the about 620,000 DEAD Americans on both sides in 1861-1865 due to the EVIL 1860 minority rule Prez election.
In the meantime – most party hack regimes have laws NOT permitting any faithless Prez electors.
I.E. if a party hack robot does NOT vote as COMMANDED by the sovereign Electors, then the other party hack robots choose a replacement.
Any Wall of the names of INFAMOUS moron party hack faithless Electors in DC ??? — More of the INSANITY in the U.S.A. system.
More requirments for no reason. One extra alternate would suffice. A solution in search of a problem.
Why do we need an out of state organization dictating policy to other states like Montana. This is just increasing the scope of government and something that Republicans said they were against.
Many of the LOW-LOW population western States were created during and after the Civil War to have Elephant U.S.A. Senators.
i.e. — many of such States should NEVER have been created.
See the blowhard provincial thinking party hack robots from such States in the gerrymander U.S.A. Senate — taking the U.S.A. to economic destruction.
This bill is being supported by the Montana Republican Party and Democratic party. Although the Democrats didn’t show to testify in the first hearing, they didn’t oppose the idea. This law will replace the whole section dealing with electors.
I agree with #2. Given the history of “faithless electors” this is indeed a solution in search of a problem.
Only nine Faithless Presidential Electors in current history flaked. There is no problem instead they should promote Congressional District Electors like we are doing in California. Initiative #10-0024.
Faithless Presidential Electors
2004: An unknown elector, Minnesota
Elector for: Kerry (Democrat)
instead cast a ballot for Senator John Edwards, Senator John Kerry’s running mate.
Note: It is believed that one of the Electors evidently mixed up his/her “John”s and inadvertently voted for Edwards for both President and Vice President. Minnesota does not require the Electors to sign either of their ballots. Once gathered at the meeting place, the electors simply deposit pieces of paper with their respective “choices” for each Office into a ballot box, after which these ballots are counted. All 10 of Minnesota’s votes for Vice President went to Senator John Edwards. Edwards, thus, becomes only the second vice-presidential candidate to have ended up with more Electoral Votes than the presidential candidate heading the National Ticket on which he ran; moreover, Edwards received both a vote for President and a vote for Vice-President from the same Presidential Elector!
2000: Barbara Lett-Simmons, District of Columbia
Elector for: Gore (Democrat)
instead cast a blank ballot.
Note: Ms. Lett-Simmons cast a blank ballot to protest what many have referred to as D.C.’s “colonial status” (the fact that, although the District of Columbia is incorporated within the United States and is represented by an elected Territorial Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, it has no voting rights on the floor of Congress; the District’s motor vehicle license plates have long had, as a slogan, ‘Taxation Without Representation’).
1988: Margaret Leach, West Virginia
Elector for: Dukakis (Democrat)
instead voted for: Lloyd Bentsen (Dukakis’ running mate)
Note: Ms. Leach cast her Vice Presidential vote for Dukakis instead of Bentsen as well.
1976: Mike Padden, Washington
Elector for: Ford (Republican)
instead voted for: Ronald Reagan (challenged Ford’s GOP nomination)
Note: Mr. Padden did, however, vote for Ford’s running mate, Robert Dole; Dole thus became the first Vice-Presidential candidate to receive more Electoral Votes than the top of the National Ticket on which he was running.
1972: Roger L. MacBride, Virginia
Elector for: Nixon (Republican)
instead voted for: John Hospers (Libertarian)
Note: Mr. MacBride was the Libertarian candidate for President four years later- in 1976. Meanwhile: Richard Nixon, thus, became the first person to run for President three times and, in all three elections he contested as his Party’s standard-bearer, never received all the votes of those Electors pledged to him through their respective “appointments” via the General Election itself.
1968: Lloyd W. Bailey, North Carolina
Elector for: Nixon (Republican)
instead voted for: George Wallace (American Independent)
Note: This led to the (so far) only time the provisions of 3 U.S.C. 15 re: an Electoral Vote not “regularly given” was dealt with formally by Congress. Objections were raised by a number of Senators and Congressmen to the counting of North Carolina in the tabulation Joint Session of the 91st Congress (6 January 1969)- the two houses immediately “rose” to debate and vote separately and “concurred” that Dr. Bailey’s vote should be counted as cast, after which the tabulation Joint Session resumed to complete counting the Electoral Vote of the 1968 Presidential Election. It is this result which has been since deemed to have legitimized the “Faithless Elector”- that is, since Congress once actually voted on the issue, it would be hard to claim a “Faithless Elector” had somehow violated Federal law (though, of course, Congress retains the power not to accept a “faithless” Electoral Vote under 3 U.S.C. 15).
1960: Henry D. Irwin, Oklahoma
Elector for: Nixon (Republican)
instead voted for: Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. (supported by “Unpledged” Democrats)
1956: W.F. Turner, Alabama
Elector for: Stevenson (Democrat)
instead voted for: Walter B. Jones, an Alabama judge.
1948: Preston Parks, Tennessee
Elector for: Truman (Democrat)
instead voted for: Strom Thurmond (State’s Rights [“Dixiecrat”])
The hearing today was pretty short. Just one person for and one person against. The sponsor mentioned this as a clean up type bill and also made the plea that electors changing their vote could be a problem and this bill fixes that. Don’t know if the committee will take executive action on the bill today. Audio (real audio) will be available at some point on the bill’s web page.
There have been many more presidential electors who voted against their own party’s presidential nominee, than those listed in #7. There were many instances of disobedient electors for vice-president that the list skips, including the 1836 election, when the Virginia Democratic electors refused to vote for the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee, Richard Johnson, because he was believed to be “living in sin” with a black woman. As a result no one got a majority in the electoral college for vice-president, and the Senate had to choose. Also there are many Peoples Party electors in 1896 who had promised to vote for the Peoples Party vice-presidential nominee, but instead voted for the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee.
Other presidential electors who voted for someone other than the presidential nominee of their party include the California Republican electors in 1912, the South Dakota Republican electors in 1912, the Alabama presidential electors in 1948, 1960, and 1968; also Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana Democratic electors in 1948. Also the famous 1796 elector from Pennsylvania, and the 1820 elector who wouldn’t vote for James Monroe.
# 7, # 9 How big is the BAN superdata base about all elections in the U.S.A. ???
Is it on a super-computer mainframe yet ???
How about having the faithless MORONS be listed on a Wall of EVIL SHAME in Dumb City ???
Like listing the EVIL monsters who wanted slavery in the U.S.A. in 1776-1865.
The California and South Dakota Republican electors in 1912 voted for the nominee of their party. Their party was not the same as the national party that had nominated William Howard Taft.
#11, presidential electors are generally members of a national political party and a state political party. Sometimes the national party and the state party don’t agree on the identity of the presidential nominee. This creates an ambiguity in the definition of “faithless elector”. Most people who write about faithless electors don’t bother to define the term. I am always trying to get people who use this term to define it.
I could have mentioned the 1872 Democratic electors who voted for someone other than Horace Greeley in my comment above, but I didn’t.