Sunday, August 1, 2010

Did You Know . . .

Did you know that no matter how long you have voted and no matter for whom you voted, you have never voted for a President . . . never! Presidents are not elected by the citizens of the United States of America. They are elected by an Electoral College (shudder). All we do as citizens is elect people into that Electoral College, then they vote for a President and Vice President. Each state has a total number of Electoral College delegates equal to the number of Representatives plus Senators that state has. Arkansas has 6, California has 55, New Mexico has 5, Alabama has 9, Maryland has 10, Missouri has 11 and Texas has 34. I think that covers most of my readers.

What is distressing is that there have been four Presidents elected that were not elected by the popular vote. That is right, we have had people in the presidency that most of the people in the U. S. voted against. In 1824 most of the people voted for Andrew Jackson but the Electoral College voted for John Quincey Adams. In 1876 the majority of Americans voted for Samuel Tilden but Rutherford B. Hayes was elected instead. A few years later in 1888 President Grover Cleveland was not reelected, it went to Benjamin Harrison instead. The fourth person to be elected to the Presidency that didn't get the majority of the popular vote was George W. Bush in 2000 when the Supreme Court awarded Florida to Bush. That gave the Electoral College to Bush and the Popular Vote to Gore.

Maine and Nebraska do it slightly differently, but their combined votes are just 17, so no one protests.

There are several movements to change that and one day it might change but don't be fooled, your vote for the President doesn't count, except to elect a member to the Electoral College. Please don't let that keep you from voting. Unless you vote you will be allowing others to tell you who will be President. Remember . . . get informed . . . stay informed . . . and vote with good information on the best person you can find.

1 comment:

  1. The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

    Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. It would no longer matter who won a state. Elections wouldn't be about winning states. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. Every vote would be counted for and assist the candidate for whom it was cast - just as votes from every county are equal and important when a vote is cast in a Governor's race. Candidates would need to care about voters across the nation, not just undecided voters in a handful of swing states.

    The current winner-take-all rule (i.e., awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state) used by 48 of the 50 states ensures that the candidates do not reach out to all of the states and their voters. Candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or care about the voter concerns in the dozens of states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind.

    The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes--that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

    The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for president. The National Popular Vote bill does not try to abolish the Electoral College. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action, without federal constitutional amendments.

    The bill has been endorsed or voted for by 1,922 state legislators (in 50 states) who have sponsored and/or cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.

    In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). The recent Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University poll shows 72% support for direct nationwide election of the President. Support for a national popular vote is strong in virtually every state, partisan, and demographic group surveyed in recent polls.

    The National Popular Vote bill has passed 30 state legislative chambers, in 20 small, medium-small, medium, and large states, including one house in Arkansas (6), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), Maine (4), Michigan (17), Nevada (5), New Mexico (5), New York (31), North Carolina (15), and Oregon (7), and both houses in California (55), Colorado (9), Hawaii (4), Illinois (21), New Jersey (15), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (12), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), and Washington (11). The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, and Washington. These five states possess 61 electoral votes -- 23% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.

    See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com

    ReplyDelete