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Dropping out of the electoral college »

Posted by: Aidenag 2 years, 7 months ago

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On Tuesday, Maryland became the first state in the union to drop out of college. The electoral college, that is. Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed a law that would award the state's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. As long as other states agree to do the same.

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Aidenag

Photographer by day, news junkie by night. My main areas of interest are politics and the environment.

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Comments: 37

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Harbeas
April 11, 2007, 2:24 p.m.
I think it is time we did away with the electoral college. This was instituted back in colonial days because of the amount of time it took to tally and submit the votes. That situation no longer applies as most votes are counted and submitted the next day. Do we realy need the electoral college?
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crespi
April 11, 2007, 2:57 p.m.
D*mn right we don't, Harbeas.
It's been twisting up the elections and violating the voters my whole life.
Get rid of the electoral college!
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dabnet
April 11, 2007, 3:30 p.m.
Its time all states did away with electoral college, we want the peoples vote to determine it all. More people will vote when they feel there vote actually counts.
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nostalgia
April 11, 2007, 7:20 p.m.
The Electoral College process is part of the original design of the Constitution. It would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change the system.
Third parties have not fared well in the Electoral College system.
Nebraska and Maine do not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In those States, there could be a split of electoral votes among candidates through the State's system for proportional allocation of votes
The Electoral College addressed in the Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton Federalist No. 68
James Madison Federalist No.39
From what I recall Jefferson did not like the idea of an Electoral College
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eugenegerard
April 11, 2007, 7:36 p.m.
The electoral college is the ultimate way of reinforcing the "good old boys" network of keeping the power structure in the hands of a few.
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Justice4All
April 11, 2007, 7:47 p.m.
This will never pass. The electorial college gives more weight to votes in small states. They will never agree to give up that power.
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Dial2ice
April 11, 2007, 7:53 p.m.
Welcome to Maryland, where we don't give up power, it is just given away.
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ningyo
April 11, 2007, 10:58 p.m.
if you look at history there were very few elections where the popular vote and the electoral college differed--it doesnt give more power to small states at all--NY gets how many votes..and vermont how many??it just means candidates have to campaign on a broader range of issues and voters--when it was created most of america was rural..small farms..they didnt want boston, ny and phila decide every issue and elction--the issues important to all those farmers were very differnet than the city dwellers--and still are today--its a good system--if not for the EC the only place anyone would campaign would be NY , Chicago and LA..and these big cities would elect all people and decide all issues--bad idea..this is only being discussed now because the sore loser bush haters just cant let it go
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jdhatl
April 12, 2007, 12:05 a.m.
The Electoral College opens our presidential elections up to fraud and manipulation on a level much worse than direct elections. The Australian system of voting is what we need to adopt. It's time can the college, it is a holdout of colonial era aristocracy not quite ready to concede power (at a time when only white male land owners could vote). It's been over 200 years, it isn't working, because its contributing to our country turning into a semi-fascist war mongering superbully. The "Founding Fathers" would not be amused, even the Federalists. Time to ditch the college, and then take a closer look at the Senate, which is modeled after the English House Of Lords circa 1780
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
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stephenmv
April 12, 2007, 2:04 a.m.
I think the electoral college should be adjusted and made "similar" to the delegate system in the primaries. Election day would not change and the electors would be divided amongst the candidates in proportion to their total votes. Right now most states do not have enough electors to be evenly distributed, some states have 3 to 5 electors, how do you split it when the vote is 50.1 to 49.9? I believe in the primary a candidate must obtain at least 15 or 18% of the vote in a state to receive any delegates and something like this can be done with the general. Maybe even lowering the required percentage to 5, which would open the door for 3rd party candidates to get their names out.
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coreyspring
April 12, 2007, 2:46 a.m.
Our current system of electing the president is antiquated and needs to be updated... this is a good first step.
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MetalNun
April 12, 2007, 3:27 a.m.
Oh, thank goodness! I hope other states including mine, Florida, will follow Maryland in this bold move. Amend the Constitution, do whatever it takes to make voting more "democratic" and maybe our votes will really be counted! But I'm not holding my breath, since I am sure the Good Old Boys/The Illuminati or whoever, can still find other ways to rig the elections and maintain the status quo... Plus it might still be nearly impossible to elect third party candidates even without intereference from the electoral college, unfortunately.
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jayne241
April 12, 2007, 3:27 a.m.
Finally!!! Hopefully many other states will follow, before the next election. If only, oh if only, this had happened say eight long years ago, how many lives and how many billions of dollars and how many tons of carbon emissions could have been saved?
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AussieMick
April 12, 2007, 4:14 a.m.
Could someone please explain the Electoral College to me? I tried looking it up in Google and I don't understand it. Here in Australia voting is compulsory (a hefty fine if you don't) and the party that gets the most votes wins. In other words if an opposition party gets more votes than the government, then the Prime Minister gets the big A and for the next four years we get to put sh*t on someone else.
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ekklesiawarrior
April 12, 2007, 4:39 a.m.
SUPREME COURT, time.
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NeoCon
April 16, 2007, 11:11 a.m.
This is just another example of how the left is trying to destroy our country and the notion of one man one vote. They would rather insert a system where the president would have to win only a handful of the most populated states and could ignore basically the other 45. Thereby ensuring the ruling of the working man by the liberal elite. This type of action is nothing more than an attempt to destroy our libertarian republic and replace it with a socialist state. It is an attempt at modern day secession.