I keep hearing from people asking me to sign petitions to basically invalidate the Electoral College, or to convince Electors to vote the popular vote in lieu of how their state voted.
STOP IT! STOP NOW!
The Electoral College is a Constitutional construct. That would be Article 2 Section 1 Clause 4. the 12th Amendement and Section 1 of the 23rd Amendment.
If Trumpkin is our president, it is bad. In certain ways, it’s worse if something happens and Mike Pence takes his place. But the United States of America is a country of law, relying on the US Constitution. We are the only country in the history of the world with free scheduled elections and the bloodless transfer of power. We owe it to the men and women and children who gave their lives founding this country to honour that process. If we lose the rule of law, we have lost everything in perpetuity.
We need to stand up. Put pressure on the few elected Democrats left to stand firm against the GOP tide. And we need to take back our party from the ground up. We need to run candidates starting in the next cycle. But we need now to accept that Trumpkin won.
This morning Fiona went on her standard Sunday play date. Her friend’s mom is a Branch Trumpidian who told me today how glad she is that all the Muslims and Mexicans will be deported, and how great it will be that the ACA will be repealed. “The Democrats,” she said, “You all believe that everyone is equal, and everyone should have things like education and health care. You’re wrong.” This is what we’re up against. It’s not just Trumpkin, it’s the people whose thoughts he gave voice to. They’re angry, they’re riled up, and yes, they’re all idiots. But they won.
You want to change the Constitution? Go for it. Also consider the National Popular Vote Movement, which already has passed in 11 states. That will be quicker than a ratified amendment. Protest: that’s protected under the First Amendment. VOTE. Organize. Start going to your local Democratic Committee meetings. Join Brand New Congress. Run for office. Give money to the Sierra Club, Bold Progressives, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Move On and the ACLU.
But violating the Constitution? NO.
Amen.
Having said that, I’ve considered the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement, and in my opinion it makes things worse, unless another change goes with it (more on that below). At least with the EC, the winner needs a majority of something–even if that something is electors who themselves don’t require a majority in the individual states. It required Trump to have some appeal across geographically broad areas: Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, etc..
NPV just requires a candidate to get more votes than anyone else. That incentivizes large numbers of candidates to run for President in the general election. Sane candidates can then split the vote, allowing an extremist to win. Sound familiar? That was Trump’s formula early in the primaries. Eventually he got enough of a delegate lead to let partisanship draw in more voters, and we ended up with a slow-motion disaster. But it started with a strategy of letting the opposition split the vote.
So how to fix things without a constitutional amendment? Pass NPV, but also pass Ranked Choice Voting in as many states as possible, the way Maine just did (although, oddly, they exempted President). (The wording of NPV might need to be clarified to work with Ranked Choice Voting, but if that were the only barrier to getting this done, I think the states that have already signed NPV would be willing to clarify the rule.)
Couldn’t do ranked choice through NPV unless every state was in on it. As long as each state controls its own election laws, the states with NPV would have ranked choice but the non-NPV state would not have ranked choice. The result would be adjusted results in some states but not in others.
Agreed, tmess2. But why is that a problem? Even under NPV, there will still be all sorts of differences between states. For example, states will have a variety of rules as to whether felons can vote. NPV does not equal nationally uniform voting, even as the supporters envision it. All I’m suggesting is that a ranked choice state can specify the results at the end of the ranking process as their tally for the NPV calculation. An alternative name for ranked choice is “instant run-off,” and that’s all that’s happening. People are still getting their vote counted at the rate of one person, one vote.