[Vision2020] Winner-take-all electoral college system is unconstitutional, say suits led by Boies

[Ted Moffett]

The current Electoral College system encourages presidential candidates to
ignore states where they are very likely to receive, or not, the electors
from a winner take all electoral system.  Voters also are not encouraged to
vote in
states where their vote has very little chance of changing the winner take
all electors outcome for their state for president.

Why vote for a democratic presidential candidate in Idaho, or why should
the republican candidate for president bother to visit Idaho?  The
democratic candidate has close to zero chances of winning, and the
republican candidate is nearly guaranteed all of Idaho's 4 electors.  The
same reasoning applied in California in
2016.  H. Clinton did not need to focus on California's voters, at least as
far as concern over losing electoral votes, nor did Trump expect to win
California's electors.  The state was not seriously in play in the 2016
presidential race.

We can keep the Electoral Collage and not change the US Constitution, yet
have a system that more closely mirrors the democratic will of the people.
There is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, for example, which
while
technically not eliminating the Electoral College, in effect does.  Thus it
would likely be opposed in the courts.
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation
So this approach might not be politically practical.

But all states could award their electors proportionally according to their
popular vote.   Maine and Nebraska already sometimes split their
electors between
two presidential candidates:  https://www.fairvote.org/maine_nebraska

Consider this fact:  The US Constitution does not mandate that the states
award their electoral votes in a winner take all system.

https://www.historycentral.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html
*"One aspect of the electoral system that is not mandated in the
constitution is the fact that the winner takes all the votes in the state"*
----------------------------------------
Consider this article about the current winner take all electoral system in
most states:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/winner-take-all_electoral_college_system_is_unconstitutional_say_suits_by_b

Winner-take-all electoral college system is unconstitutional, say suits led
by Boies

By Debra Cassens Weiss <http://www.abajournal.com/authors/4/>

Posted February 22, 2018


*"A coalition of prominent law firms and professors has filed four federal
lawsuits claiming the winner-take-all system of electoral college voting
distorts presidential campaigns and violates the U.S. Constitution.*

*The Constitution provides that “electors” choose the president and vice
president, while states determine how electors are selected, the suits
explain. Forty-eight states and Washington, D.C., have winner-take-all
systems for choosing electors in which the political party of the leading
candidate selects every elector. The system magnifies votes by those who
chose the winner and discards the votes of others."*

-----------------------------------------------------

Here is an article about a proportional electoral college system:
Integral Proportional System: Aligning Electoral Votes More Closely with
State Popular Votes

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/655882?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_content
https://www.historycentral.com/elections/Electoralcollgewhy.html
---------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

.

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 11:14 AM rhayes at frontier.com <rhayes at frontier.com>
wrote:

The Electoral College was set up for the same reason that there are two
> senators from each state. That being to placate the South and convince them
> to join the union, and coincidently (not) to protect their abominable
> institution of slavery. In a different manner nothing has really changed.
>
>
>
>
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