What a wacky idea- electing a president by popular vote! Though in Ohio (and Florida) we have a long way to go with vote counting, I have hope that some day the inner city will vote and those votes will be counted. Even the ones from 2004 that are probably at the bottom of Lake Erie.
Some gems from the article-
But in California, GOP Assemblyman Chuck DeVore derisively refers to the proposal as a way to "amend the Constitution without amending the Constitution."
"It's like cheating," says Mr. DeVore, who predicts that the plan would force candidates to campaign primarily in urban areas with large populations to win the popular vote.
and according to Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California, Riverside-
But he figures there might be a way to dampen enthusiasm. "You could say the French elect their president directly," he says. "I'm thinking that will get people running away from any support: If the French do it, is it really right for the US?"
Posts: 1196 | Location: A danger to this country and the free world | Registered: 03-18-04
I find the proposal interesting, and it certainly does address the issue of the less populated states having a higher than proportional respresentation in the electoral college. As it stands now, a single citizen's vote in Wyoming carries about 4 times the weight of a single citizen's vote in California.
Very obviously, the current system gives an unfair voice to a smaller portion of citizens. Those who argue that the EC "protects" the rights of the smaller states are ignoring the US Senate, in which each state, regardless of its population, has 2 members. It seems that what they really want is an unequal representative voice in selecting the President.
Posts: 17236 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
