Law Did a court ruling just invalidate the electoral college?

[Beaver Brownlee]

"A federal appeals court ruled late Tuesday that presidential electors who cast the actual ballots for president and vice president are free to vote as they wish and cannot be required to follow the results of the popular vote in their states.

The decision could give a single elector the power to decide the outcome of a presidential election — if the popular vote results in an apparent Electoral College tie."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...pick-our-president/ar-AAG8tdZ?ocid=spartanntp

Now I'm no legal Eagle, but if the elector can just vote how they want anyway they feel and ignore what their state/district chooses....

What's the point of even continuing to have the electoral college?

You can read and write but don't understand why we have an electoral college?!

It's so a few large cities don't decide the fate of the rest of the nation. Equal representation of states.

I can't believe this has to be explained to anyone.
Fuckin doomed.

 

[PainIsLIfe]

Yeah. But how do they pick them? From what pool of people? Which party gets which for each state?

Both parties pick a slate of voters and the party's candidate that wins each state sends their group to vote. Here's a link on the process.

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html

 

[Strychnine]

You can read and write but don't understand why we have an electoral college?!

It's so a few large cities don't decide the fate of the rest of the nation. Equal representation of states.

I can't believe this has to be explained to anyone.
Fuckin doomed.

Why do we have it when the elector can just vote how they feel?

Say President Trump wins NY by a landslide and the elector says... "Nah, I'm voting for Alfred E. Neuman".

Spoiler

How is that right?

The electoral college was all well and good when your chances of never leaving your hometown, much less your state was a distinct possibility. But now in this modern age, we shouldn't have to rely on such an ancient system.

And cut back on the monster energy drinks man...

 

[Beaver Brownlee]

Why do we have it when the elector can just vote how they feel?

Say President Trump wins NY by a landslide and the elector says... "Nah, I'm voting for Alfred E. Neuman".

Spoiler

How is that right?

The electoral college was all well and good when your chances of never leaving your hometown, much less your state was a distinct possibility. But now in this modern age, we shouldn't have to rely on such an ancient system.

And cut back on the monster energy drinks man...

Until we're all one state it shouldn't be changed. Each state should have an equal voice and that's what it does.

How would you like others dictating your wardrobe, hairstyle, sexual preference?

 

[Beaver Brownlee]

Why do we have it when the elector can just vote how they feel?

Say President Trump wins NY by a landslide and the elector says... "Nah, I'm voting for Alfred E. Neuman".

Spoiler

How is that right?

The electoral college was all well and good when your chances of never leaving your hometown, much less your state was a distinct possibility. But now in this modern age, we shouldn't have to rely on such an ancient system.

And cut back on the monster energy drinks man...

Until we're all one state it shouldn't be changed. Each state should have an equal voice and that's what it does.

How would you like others dictating your wardrobe, hairstyle, sexual preference?

And I don't do caffeine.

 

[My Spot]

TS utterly apparent desperation to get rid of the Electoral College is bordering on Panic wrestling.

Didn't even know about it until November 2016.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

Seems to me it upheld it as an anti-democratic,oligarchic institution.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

What's the point of even continuing to have the electoral college?

To keep the plebs from having any actual voting power.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

Because change is hard. I don't think anyone truly thinks it's a good way to decide the presidency, but at any given time there are unprincipled hacks who will defend it because they think it's in their partisan advantage.

The thinking behind it was that Americans wouldn't know much about the presidential candidates, but they would know who they trusted in their areas to make good decisions about it. And the expectation was that there would rarely be a candidate who wins a majority in the electoral college. If there isn't one, the election goes to the House of Representatives (the more-democratic body), which picks among the top three EC vote-getters. So they didn't anticipate parties, but they figured that the EC vote would be like a primary.

If you read through the history, you'll see two main points:

1. It never worked as intended and was poorly conceived from the start; and
2. The apologetics you see today (that it was intended to make only "swing states" matter or whatever) have nothing to do with the thinking behind it.

BTW, fun bit of history that illustrates the disingenuousness of apologists here. If a Democratic candidate ever wins the election without winning the popular vote, the EC is dead.

So basically its a safe guard to make sure the ruling class always win.

Such oligarchy much wow.

 

[Deleted member 159002]

Until we're all one state it shouldn't be changed. Each state should have an equal voice and that's what it does.

How would you like others dictating your wardrobe, hairstyle, sexual preference?

The electoral college doesn't give each state an equal voice. Some states have only 3 electoral votes. California has 55. The people from small states (which are predominantly Republican) are overrepresented in Presidential elections because of the electoral college. There are less people per electoral vote in small states than there are people per electoral vote in large states. Which is wrong. A person shouldn't have greater or less say in determining his country's leader based on something as arbitrary the number of people that live in his state.

 

[Bloody Pulp]

They have done it from time to time, even last election. 2016 Faithless Electors:

Colin Powell 3 (WA),
John Kasich 1 (TX),
Ron Paul 1 (TX),
Bernie Sanders 1 (HI),
Faith Spotted Eagle 1 (WA)

I didn’t know Elizabeth Warren was an elector in Washington.

 

[My Spot]

The electoral college doesn't give each state an equal voice. Some states have only 3 electoral votes. California has 55. The people from small states (which are predominantly Republican) are overrepresented in Presidential elections because of the electoral college. There are less people per electoral vote in small states than there are people per electoral vote in large states. Which is wrong. A person shouldn't have greater or less say in determining his country's leader based on something as arbitrary the number of people that live in his state.

How's your coalition to end the EC going? Be the change you want to see in the world.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

So basically its a safe guard to make sure the ruling class always win.

Such oligarchy much wow.

Who are these oligarchy you speak of? Because of its billionaires and millionaires, it back fired on them since Hilary won both those demographics

 

[hillelslovak87]

TS utterly apparent desperation to get rid of the Electoral College is bordering on Panic wrestling.

 

[Javelina]

Then why do we still have the electoral college? I'm not trying to start any stuff, I'm just trying to understand that if my state goes for President "Doe" by a landslide, my elector can just say..

"Nah mane... I'm voting for Andy Dick".

????

i'm not trying to say go fuck yourself, but go fuck yourself


lol, nah what mac said. you generally don't have people in the college that will go against the vote

 

[Jack V Savage]

Who are these oligarchy you speak of? Because of its billionaires and millionaires, it back fired on them since Hilary won both those demographics

It's ironic because the EC was set up specifically to keep a Trumplike candidate from winning, which is what the founders feared more than anything.

 

[Whippy McGee]

The OP and many Leftists maintain an opinion of someone that doesn't understand why the Electoral College section of the U.S. Constitution is the largest, and most detailed. The poster likely doesn't realize that without the Electoral College, the United States of America would have never been formed and without it the nation will fracture and break apart.

I have seen Leftists ridiculously argue that "Hillary won the Popular Vote". That argument is for morons. Why?

A Popular Vote contest never occurred. If it did, Trump would have campaign in New York, California, Illinois, etc. We have no idea what the results would have been. But, crying about it afterwards is like us playing chess and you take my King for the win. But, I protest and claim I should be the winner, because I took more of your pieces off the board. Again, that was not the contest we are having.

 

[Whippy McGee]

It's ironic because the EC was set up specifically to keep a Trumplike candidate from winning, which is what the founders feared more than anything.

^^^^ Shit Posting

Bullshit.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

It's ironic because the EC was set up specifically to keep a Trumplike candidate from winning, which is what the founders feared more than anything.

I don't really know enough about the EC to argue that but there's no evidence suggesting it's tool used by the ultra wealthy to win elections

 

[Fawlty]

Even knowing that the EC is going to force the Republican Party to the left (this is what would happen imo rather than extended Democratic dominance), and even though Texas isn't long for the Red, I'm still in favor of cashing it in for a popular vote. My only reservation left at this point is that it could cause an undesirable increase in populism and the dragging down of politics in the Idiocracy direction, but I can't necessarily support that fear with evidence from the democratic world.

And Democrats shouldn't be too excited about it. At best, it will win them one presidential cycle. But that's not even assured, as a popular vote election is not quite the same as an electoral college election. Every single vote is up for grabs, instead of votes in a shrinking handful of states. It means that millions of California and New York voices will be heard. It will also shake up the primary significantly, probably making regional blocs more powerful instead of just caring about Iowa, for instance.