Law Professor Edward Foley, one of the earliest law professors to become an expert on election law, has this column, which says the U.S. needs ranked choice voting in presidential general elections. He is about to publish a book “Presidential Elections and Majority Rule” that will be of interest when it comes out. Thanks to Jack Dean for the link. The article’s title is not a very good title.
One more genius moron Prof who is brain dead ignorant about Condorcet — RCV done correctly.
@ Demo Rep: RCV is one step closer to Condorcet. The same ballots as RCV can be used to tabulate Condorcet preferences.
It would be better to reform the Electoral College.
(1) Apportion electors among the United States and their territories on the basis of citizens voting age population with at least one electric for twenty thousand persons.
(2) Electors to be chosen by popular election with time, place, and manner regulations by legislature, with congressional override (same rules as for elections of Congress – the reason most electors are chosen at-large while representatives are elected from districts is because of this lack of override)
(3) Electors meet as single body and choose president and vice-president by majority vote. Meeting may be in separate physical locations if simultaneous communication is available.
(4) If vacancy in vice-presidency (including due to accession to the presidency), electors meet to choose new president. If both offices vacant, Congress may designate temporary accession.
(5) Repeal 12th and 23rd amendments.
(4)
@ JR: Your reforms would be a radical change and would require Constitutional amendment. Much, much easier for swing states to adopt ranked choice voting.
Top Two. THAT’s the answer!
@ CL: How would top two work with the electoral college?
ABOLISH the ANTI-Democracy minority rule EC —
see the 750,000 DEAD in 1861-1866 — to get 13-14-15 Amdts.
—
Uniform definition of Voter in ALL of the USA — USA Citizen, 18 plus yrs old
PR and AppV – pending Condorcet
TOTSOP
Civil WAR II required ??? — with hundreds of millions DEAD ???
— to get REAL Democracy into the USA regime —
to SMASH the monarchs/oligarchs in the USA ???
@ CL: How would top two work with the electoral college- WALTER ZIOBRO
Don’t ask me. Ask Jim Riley… he’s the king of Top Two! No matter what the question the answer is always Top Two!
The EC has been political brain cancer since day 1 in 1789
— and now FATAL to freedom in 2020.
NOOO statutory band-aid *fix* for the EC.
KILL the EC before it kills the USA.
@WZ,
The Hamiltonian Amendment named after a similar proposal by Alexander Hamilton before he was killed by Aaron Burr, has a number of virtues.
It would require that presidential electors be popularly elected, and extend participation to United States citizens resdiding in Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Marianas, and American Samoa. The apportionment would be based on the relevant population of voters in each State. It would eliminate the senate distortion. The body would be large enough to eliminate gross rounding errors in the apportionment.
The electors would actually meet so that they could deliberate. Electors weould continue to hold office through the remainder of the presidential term to deal with vacancies.
Congress could direct the manner of election, by district, proportional, etc. While they could provide for gross level rules, they would be less likely to get into micromanagement. If there was a nationsl popular vote, Congress would likely dictate partisan registration and other restrictions on state elections.
The 1787 USA EC SCHEME was copied from the schemes in Europe for picking the German Emperor and Polish King in 1787.
750,000 DEAD in 1861-1866 due to 1860 EC machinations.
Still all sorts of govt racist stuff in many States — NSEW — mere 154 years after Civil WAR I.
KILL the EC before it causes Civil WAR II – and even perhaps WW III.
Jim, most in American Samoa, unless they came from the mainland, are only nationals, not citizens. Would you also include nationals in your plan?
@me,
I would probably leave it at citizens. There is no concept of “national” in the Constitution. It is a statutory construct. Conceivably it would have been better to leave Puerto Ricans, etc. as Puerto Rico citizens with right to residency in the US, though I think the treaty with Denmark required that residents of the Virgin Islands be granted US citizenship. It is probably impossible to switch back though, especially with the 14th Amendment granting US citizenship to those born in the US.
I think that all territories other than Puerto Rico and District of Columbia, would have a single presidential elector. So you could permit US nationals to vote, which would only affect results in American Samoa – but it would not be unreasonable for California and Hawaii to do the same.
@DR,
Alexander Hamilton recognized the flaw of the 1787 scheme.
It was actually the Federalists who were trying to scheme to elect Burr as President. Though both were Demo Reps, they thought Jefferson was more radical. Burrist electors were not exercising independent judgment but scheming to change the result of the election.
@ JR: As I have said before, I don’t think constitutional amendment is the way to go (unless a more radical idea were proposed, like switching from a single President to a Swiss style joint executive, which I would support). If we are going to keep a single President, we can improve the current election process without a constitutional amendment or a complicated interstate compact. Maine is already fixing it on their own by adopting ranked choice voting.
Good to see Ned support Ranked Choice, but not so good his comments on the value of alternative parties. His thesis is the two major “good” parties need Ranked Choice to avoid the evils of the “bad” interlopers. While I agree that Ranked Choice may be a positive step, I can hardly agree with the rest of his op-ed.
14-1 born in USA and subject to USA Const —
does NOT include kids having foreign fathers — regardless of ALL con law morons — too many to count.
[part of the RED Donkey communist UNCON ROT of counting illegal invaders in any USA pop Census]
@WZ,
RCV imposed on a random state basis is mere duct tape that will result in drifting into a popular vote scheme where Congress will take over all elections.
The new pure proportional representation (PPR) has been compiling votes for Presidential, Vice Presidential and Electors, and about 100 new nominees plus 580 nominees from 10th USA Parliament to be released on April 1st 2020.
Voting concludes on April 19th 2020 (mail-in marked paper ballots accepted) and a second stage of the Electoral College 2020 will begin which might include participation with Libertarian Party National Convention in May of 2020.
Executive seats are undergoing votes of confidence into perpetuity, a virtual Senate Chamber for 100 Electors being constructed and call for nominations for one female and one male State Senator Elector, all is underway now.
The Libertarian One 2020
http://www.1ogle.com
Ogle is like a model train enthusiast with delusions that he runs Amtrak
Yeah it’s sad. Reality and fantasy are really blurred in his mind.
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