On August 9, a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts heard Lyman v Baker, 1:18cv-10327. This is one of the four cases around the country that challenges the constitutionality of a state law, requiring that state’s presidential electors to be elected at-large. See this story.
A similar case was argued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last month. David Boies argued both times. He is famous for having been Al Gore’s attorney in 2000 in Bush v Gore.
More attempted perversions of 1, 14 and 15 Amdts by the usual suspects.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/group-files-lawsuit-to-challenge-electoral-college
— the 4 cases – another story
Proportional voting for electors is more likely to result in a deadlock in the electoral college. Better to have ranked choice voting for electors. No need for constitutional amendment, or interstate compact, and, if enough states adopt it, the likelihood of a candidate getting a majority BOTH in the popular and electoral vote is increased.
Uniform definition of Elector-Voter in ALL of the USA.
PR and AppV
also- nonpartisan elections of USA Marshals and USA Dist Attys — to watch all hacks 24/7
EC = 1 of the 3 time bomb minority rule gerrymander election systems in the USA regime.
Too many math morons in the entire adult population to count –
esp in media and universities (esp in polisci, math and law depts).
Circa 7 popular vote minority rule Prezs so far ???
1860 minority rule Prez = about 750,000-1,000,000 DEAD in 1861-1865
The EC time bomb re-charged/re-fused each 4 years.
@WZ,
The purpose of a constitution is to lay out how a government is constituted (e.g. the method of selecting its head of gvernment).
The proper solution is not duct tape conceived by clever lawyers to demonstrate their lawyerly cleverness.
Constitutional amendment:
Electors apportioned among states and territories on the basis of citizen voting age population, with at least one elector for every 10,000 persons.
Electors to be popularly elected by voters qualified to vote chief executive officer of their state. Time, place, manner regulation by state with override by Congress (same as for congressional elections).
Electors meet as a single body to choose the president. Meeting may be in separate locations if simultaneous communication can be provided.
How many regimes on Mother Earth manage to survive by having ALL voters EQUALLY elect chief executive officers — federal/ national/ state/ local ???
Again – the USA EC scheme is due to a major conspiracy of the SLAVE States and SMALL below average States at the top secret 1787 Fed Convention — which also affected the USA H Reps and USA Senate.
There are *just enough* math MORONS who love direct/indirect minority rule oligarch regimes to keep them going — no matter how evil corrupt/dangerous/powermad such regimes become.
Prime example NOW — the USA regime — of death, destruction and insane debts — rotted to its EVIL core — due to the 3 minority rule gerrymander systems.
See the ROT in the Roman Republic in 120 BC to 27 BC >>> de facto killer tyrant Empire with killer tyrant Emperors for about 500 years of major death, destruction and insane debts.
ZERO learned — in 2,000 [6,000] plus years ??? Duh.
Esp. now with dumb and dumber media math morons [M3] on TV/radio/internet.
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PR and AppV
“Electors meet as a single body to choose the president. Meeting may be in separate locations if simultaneous communication can be provided.”
Not accurate at all…. the electors meet on the basis of which state they were elected in, at their respective state capitols. Those meetings are not simulcast to all other state houses. Those votes are tallied and then mailed to congress for a final tally in January.
If we’re going to stick with this bullshit electoral college system, then electors should be chosen by winner take district (ideally using instant runoff), and the final two state wide electors should be awarded proportionally using the D’Hondt method. The D’Hondt method awards seats (or electors) to the highest vote-getter and then reduces their vote total by using the following formula.
total votes per candidate / currently awarded seats (electors) + 1 = new vote tally.
Thus if you applied this to the two state wide electors in say Nebraska:
Trump – 495,961
Clinton – 284,494
Johnson – 38,946
Stein – 8,775
The first elector would go to Trump. After that you apply the formula so you take 495,961 and divide the total number of electors he already has (out of the statewide electors only) and add one to that. Thus 495,961 / 2 = 247,980.5
New Totals:
Trump – 247,980.5
Clinton – 284,494
Johnson – 38,946
Stein – 8,775
Clinton now has the most, so she would get the second state wide elector.
In most states this would cause the two state wide electors to split between the two highest vote-getters, but not always. For example in Wyoming, Trump would have gotten both, and in Hawaii Clinton would have gotten both. Trump would have gotten two electors in Maine instead of just one. Using the method laid out above Trump would have still won, but by a much narrower margin…. he’d have about 275 electoral votes instead of 306.
“Electors meet as a single body to choose the president. Meeting may be in separate locations if simultaneous communication can be provided.” … Nevermind my last post regarding this, I now see (skimmed your post initially) you’re proposing an unrealistic constitutional amendment, not talking about the current process.
@JR
The prospect of passage of any constitutional amendment of any sort changing or abolishing the electoral college is minute. Too many states have too much to lose. Better to change the process by which they are chosen within each state.
Either TOTAL Democracy or TOTAL monarchy [see Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Hirohito, etc.) — make your choice.
The current MONSTROUS minority rule oligarchy stuff (about 5-30 percent gerrymander math) since 1776 is in a CRISIS mode.
Some folks thought divine right of kings and slavery would continue forever.
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PR and AppV — the HARD way ???
@DR,
Russia, France, Brazil, Venezuela, …
Andrew, there shouldn’t even be any “at large” electors. Just add that number (2) to the number of congressional districts and organize each state into that number of unique Presidential Elector districts. Thus, Nebraska, with 3 Congresscritters, would have 5 PE districts and thus five separate PE election contests. Done!
JB –
1/2 or less votes x 1/2 rigged districts = 1/4 or less control = OLIGARCHY
ALL 3 USA gerrymander systems
ALL 99 houses in the 50 State legislatures
MANY local legis bodies
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PR and AppV — pending Condorcet
Cambridge, MA — PR – about 90 pct accurate.
Thus — the communist Donkey oligarch regimes versus the fascist Elephant oligarch regimes in the USA
— each with figurehead monarch type HACKS
— now quite ready for Civil W-A-R II.
The brain dead so-called all knowing media is too math STUPID to detect and report the OLIGARCHY math after each gerrymander election.
@Andrew, Walter Ziobro,
My proposal addresses most of the problems with the current system.
(1) It requires election of presidential electors.
(2) It permits Congress to determine the manner of election in the same way they currently do for Congress. They might well require election by district.
(3) It permits voters in the territories to vote for presidential electors.
(4) It removes the tie between between number of representatives and senators and ties the number of electors to a more relevant population base – those who generally have the right to vote.
(5) It increases the number of electors so that the numbers of electors per state is more proportional to relevant population.
(6) It makes the electors an actual deliberative body, eliminating the possibility of elections being thrown into the House of Representatives (a fantasy of Burr, Lessig, and Putin).
Note that there would at least 2300 electors in California, so election by district might not be used.
(7) It avoids pushing the United States towards becoming a unitary state.
JR-
The USA is a de facto unitary state due the SCOTUS perversions of the general welfare and interstate commerce clauses in 1-8
— along with the earlier paper money perversion due to the Civil War
— regardless of the hyper-inflation due to paper money [bills of credit] in 1775-1780 that destroyed the USA economy
— saved only by French Coins in 1778-1783.
One of the few things NOT moved from the 1777 AC to the 1787 Const –
ALL the bills of credit mentions.
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How about each adult USA citizen being a USA Prez/VP Elector ???
Who needs gangster oligarchs picking USA Prezs/VP ???
Also – electronics stuff has made lots of regimes more and more obsolete —
telegraph, telephone, radio, TV, earth satellites, internet.
What percent of adult non-USA citizens are functional in American English ???
What percent of the world economy is de facto based on the USA dollar ???
@Jeff Becker, right so then the electoral districts can be gerrymandered to hell even more so than the congressional districts.
Gerrymander districts >>> akin to the Stalin and Hitler concentration/death camps.
Mass media morons M3 are too STUPID to detect the nonstop DANGER.
PR and AppV