Democrats Just Got One Step Closer to Seizing Presidential Elections

The dems only know one way to play: DOWN & DIRTY.

Why is it dirty?

You know, it's that document known as the Constitution.

See, you need to do better than that. Consider my example @2. I quote the relevant phrasing from the Constitution to show why this action is not dirty. By contrast, you offer blah blah blah “the Constitution,” assuming that because you don’t like a thing, it must be unconstitutional. Except, it’s not.

action is not dirty

Why would anyone in Virgina waste their time voting?

Why wouldn’t they? Why do they bother now?

Why wouldn’t they?

Because their vote would mean nothing, if all the electoral votes are going to the popular vote candidate regardless of what they wanted, so why vote. 

         Why do they bother now?

With the hope the candidate they voted for wins enough electoral votes to when the presidency. It's how the system works.   

Any time a person votes, they face the fact that many others may vote in a way they disagree with. Some people, therefore, say their vote doesn’t matter. A liberal in Alabama might think their vote doesn’t matter. A conservative in California might think the same thing. And the feeling is understandable. They are outnumbered. But that doesn’t keep people from running for office or getting out the vote. The effort often pays off.

Right now, millions of people already think their vote doesn’t count because of the Electoral College. More than once, the president has been elected in spite of not earning a majority vote. Most states have a winner-takes-all system that awards all of its electoral votes to the candidate who wins 50%+1 of the popular vote. Many people think that’s outrageous.

Also, right now, assuming equal turnout, a presidential election vote in California is worth less than in every other state. Turnout is an important consideration, too. We talk of wasted votes, but we never really test this because we never get close to 100% turnout.

It's how the system works.

Systems change. All the time. Hopefully, because people come up with a better one. Ideally, we would amend the Constitution, but the Popular Vote Compact attempts to correct a flaw in the system with a broad agreement only slightly less hard to implement.

Systems change

So you are in the same camp as Trump, just change electors when you want. 

No tacos. You are gaslighting.

Here:

Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2–4 of the Constitution states:

• Each state appoints electors equal to its total number of Senators and Representatives.

• Electors meet in their states to cast votes for president and vice president.

A state's legislature has broad authority to decide the method of appointing electors; they can lawfully award electors based on the state popular vote.

So, for this case, Virginia has 11 districts thus 13 electors.   They could assign all their electors to the candidate who wins the most districts, the could assign electors on a per district win basis (a method I wish all states would adopt), and they could assign electors to the popular winner.

They currently have 13 electors and broad authority over the assignment of those electors.

No tacos. You are gaslighting.

How, specifically?

Here:

Here what? You fail to make any kind of point.

Because their vote would mean nothing, if all the electoral votes are going to the popular vote candidate regardless of what they wanted, so why vote. 

To contribute to the popular vote.   

A defeatist attitude is never productive.

Seems perfectly legal to me.

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress - US Constitution, Article II

That means the state gets to decide how it selects its own electors. They can roll dice or use a ouija board, if that’s what the state decides it wants to do.

Seems perfectly legal to me.

Yeah, but it ends up making religious conservative votes count the same as liberal and progressives' votes in heavily populated States so that can't be fair. What are rightwing religious conservatives going to do when their votes don't count for four or five American voters in a high population blue State? They might never have another rightwing Christo-fascist in the white house! Oh No! /s

You'll hear them whine and cry about what our founders wanted and twist and turn their desperation for continuing the status quo so they don't lose their grip on power as they have already lost their grip on reality. Frankly I'm sick and tired of a minority of Americans who ridicule higher education being allowed to have unequal representation. Every American voter should get to feel like their vote matters in a Presidential election, and as it stands that has never been a reality in America.

I really feel like if we were starting from scratch, no one would think the Electoral College made any sense. We talk all the time about democracy, the will of the people, and so on. Everything else we decide in this country is done by majority vote - elections, legislation, judicial appeals, all-star teams, where we’re going for dinner, etc. 

But for the leader of the whole country, we’re going to go with whoever a minority of the people voted for? It makes no sense.

The Electoral College was designed, in part, to appease slave states by amplifying their political power through the Three-Fifths Compromise . By counting 60% of enslaved people—who could not vote—toward a state's total population, Southern states gained disproportionate representation in Congress and the Electoral College. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Key Aspects of the Electoral College and Slavery:

• Political Power: Southern leaders feared a direct election because their large non-voting population would lead to being outvoted by the North. The Electoral College allowed them to count enslaved people to increase their electoral clout, directly aiding candidates favored by the South.
• Three-Fifths Clause: This clause gave slave-holding states more votes, significantly impacting early elections. For instance, it helped Virginian slaveholders like Jefferson win the presidency, allowing for a "slaveholder stronghold".
• Multiple Goals: While appeasing slave states was a significant factor, the Electoral College was also designed to address other concerns, including protecting small states and creating a filter between the public and the choice of the president.
• Lasting Impact: This system maintained slave-state influence in the White House for decades, contributing directly to the political environment leading up to the Civil War. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]

While some debates emphasize other reasons for the electoral system, such as ensuring a strong federal structure, evidence from the constitutional convention shows that securing the support of Southern states was central to its adoption. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

I really feel like if we were starting from scratch, no one would think the Electoral College made any sense.

Of course not. It only made sense back when it was just assumed that white Christian males were superior to everyone else which were basically the only ones who could vote back then so by keeping a check on the general populace vote by funneling the popular vote through a handful of white male Christian representatives made sure there were no anomalies that could threaten the white Christian male patriarchy that is still in power, though with slightly less influence, today. The thing the white Christian patriarchy fears the most are Americans waking up to their control structure. It's why they are all so desperately anti-woke. They know without the rigged system they've relied on to win the Presidency rightwing conservative Christians will likely never win another Presidential election and they're scared shitless. A cornered rat doesn't care about cheating; it does whatever it has to in order to stay alive which is why rightwing conservatives have no shame about doing whatever it takes to destroy actual democracy in favor of their sick theocracy.

Given we cannot start from scratch, an easy fix that does not throw out the electoral system is this:

Every state assigns its electors by district.   Thus if district A picks the R, an R elector is assigned.   If district B picks the D, a D elector is assigned.   That more accurately represents the people and is entirely consistent with the makeup of Congress.

And really there is no need for human electors.   All we need is a tally in a database.

But this requires all states to cooperate, and that will never happen.

Every state assigns its electors by district.

States already can do that. Maine and Nebraska determine their electoral votes based on the popular votes in their congressional districts. So, it’s not unusual that Nebraska will assign 4 electoral votes to the Republican candidate and 1 to the Democrat, while Maine will assign 3 to the Democrat and 1 to the Republican. This is, in fact, what happened in 2020 and 2024.

The point I’m trying to get Vic to understand is that every state has the constitutional authority to use this process, or use the winner-take-all system, or any system their state legislature comes up with.

States already can do that.

I know, I was putting that fact on the table in order to proceed with my recommendation.

The point I’m trying to get Vic to understand is that every state has the constitutional authority to use this process, or use the winner-take-all system, or any system their state legislature comes up with.

We have the same goal.   See @1.1.9

I was just sharing my thoughts with you on how I would like to see the system evolve (assuming full abolishment is not an option).

The point I’m trying to get Vic to understand

therein lies the problem.../s

Yep. We on same page.

It helps if a person is open to actually considering a different point of view. Alas.

I want to roll the knucklebones, it just sounds cool, like pirates, argggghhh!

Darth Spamberger is a carpetbagging witch from New Jersey. She is trying to change the State Constitution to Gerrymander Virginia to have 10 Democratic districts. 

President Donald Trump... said Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” in Texas (Emphasis added)

politico

Complain to him.

If Virginia has to do what Texas does then we get 85 mph speed limits, no ban on radar detectors and Spamberger's gun control and the rest of her bullshit is gone.  

I don't think you get my point, but that's ok.

I don't think you got my comparison either, but that's ok, too  

I did, but it's inapt.

The popular vote is NOT "seizing" elections, the will of the people is the popular vote. 

The electoral college can alter the will of the people and this can happen tilting the outcome for either political party.

Republicans panic over non-existent issues while spreading fear and falsehoods about voting.

Between gerrymandering, passing laws making it harder for students, poor people, the elderly and handicapped, and Veterans to vote, scrapping voting by mail and implementing forced fees for various types of ID, Republicans fail to recognize how much of their own voting base they are disenfranchising.

The new laws being imposed on mail in voting affects many Republican voters.

Republican voters abroad are affected as much as any other political party.

I have never seen Republicans so cowed and afraid of the will of the people as they are right now. 

The real issue is are we going to have freedom and choices based on reality or is what Republicans want is to reduce the choices of the American people so they rule forever?

Democrats live through Republican elected representatives, so why is the non-stop fear mongering to the Republican base the message of fear about Democrats being elected?

If Democrats are the most popular, then allow the will of the people. 

Look hard at many of these laws and start asking the question are Republican voters being disenfranchised in this whole process?

Look hard at many of these laws and start asking the question are Republican voters being disenfranchised in this whole process?

Most certainly it will affect both sides, yet the GOP seems convinced it will alienate more of Dem, than they. Either way it is a solution searching for a problem, and Houston, and every other big city will, if the Repubs are somehow able to pass the 'DON'T' Save America Bill, that we will ALL wind up paying for !

If you can't win within the rules rather than try and make your platform more palatable, change the rules.

That’s sort of how we ended up with the Electoral College in the first place. It guaranteed political power to slave states that they would otherwise not have had based on their voting population.

Bazinga !

each slave was worth 3/5th of a person.

The  Three-fifths Compromise , also known as the  Constitutional Compromise of 1787 , was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States  Constitutional Convention  over the inclusion of  slaves  in counting a state's total population. This count would determine the  number of seats  in the  House of Representatives , the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated, ^{[ 1 ]}  and how much money the states would pay in taxes.  Slave states  wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no  voting rights . A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse

Three-fifths Compromise - Wikipedia

thus fucking up everything in perpetuity.

Not to mention that Native Americans were worth "0" parts of a person - just like today, eh?

Not to mention that Native Americans were worth " 0 " parts of a person

True at the time as far as the US Constitution was written.

Ironic because it was copied from the Iroquois Nations Constitution

which included this passage

 If any man or any nation outside the Five Nations shall obey the laws of the Great Peace and make known their disposition to the Lords of the Confederacy, they may trace the Roots to the Tree and if their minds are clean and they are obedient and promise to obey the wishes of the Confederate Council, they shall be welcomed tot ake shelter beneath the Tree of the Long Leaves.  IroquoisConfederacy-The-Great-Law-of-Peace.pdf

The FF could have done so much better.

- just like today, eh?

That depends on too many variables; many of which are long overdue for clarification and correction.

Do you vote?