{"id":975,"date":"2016-12-15T14:42:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T18:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/?p=975"},"modified":"2016-12-15T17:41:15","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T21:41:15","slug":"sifting-through-the-ashes-part-two-the-electoral-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/blog\/2016\/12\/15\/sifting-through-the-ashes-part-two-the-electoral-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Sifting Through The Ashes,  Part Two &#8211; The Electoral College."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Greetings and Salutations;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Electoral College, \u00a0as a part of our Presidential Election is rarely a step in the process that anyone cares about. \u00a0 Every four years, \u00a0there are a few folks whining about how unfair it is, \u00a0or how it is influencing the results&#8230;but in general, \u00a0 no one cares. \u00a0However, \u00a0 this year, \u00a0 it has turned into what some folks believe is the last \u00a0hope for Democracy in America&#8230;and so has had its importance spiked upwards. \u00a0 I wanted to post a thought or two about it, \u00a0here in the few days before it votes and our next President is locked in.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Over the years, \u00a0 the states have implemented a couple of VERY BAD laws dealing with how the votes of the Electoral College are cast and treated.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>All but TWO states have a &#8220;Winner Take All&#8221; law.<\/li>\n<li>Many states have created a &#8220;Faithless Electors&#8221; law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Why are these two laws (in specific) very bad for Democracy and the firewall that the Electoral College is supposed to provide \u00a0and what could be done about it?<\/div>\n<div>The &#8220;Winner Take All&#8221; law means that the candidate winning by even ONE vote gets the benefit of ALL the Electoral votes. \u00a0This could mean that a candidate with ONE vote gets 20 or more votes from the Electoral College. \u00a0The unfairness of this should be immediately obvious, \u00a0as it subverts the will of the people&#8230;disenfranchising the many votes for the other candidates. \u00a0 How could this be fixed? \u00a0 I suggest that the &#8220;Winner Take All&#8221; Laws be repealed and removed. \u00a0 Instead simply apportion the Elector&#8217;s votes in proportion to the votes the candidates got in the election.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The &#8220;Faithless Elector&#8221; law makes it a crime for the Electors to refuse to vote for the winning candidate that they are assigned to. \u00a0This undercuts a major reason for the Electoral College, \u00a0and stands against the rules of a society of freedom. \u00a0 I suggest that all such laws be repealed and removed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>That having been said, \u00a0I am not entirely sure that state laws dealing with the Electoral Congress are Constitutional, and therefore valid. \u00a0I can put up a good argument that State Laws do not and should not apply to the Electoral College. Specifically&#8230;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>it is a direct function of the Federal Government. \u00a0 It is created in the FEDERAL Constitution.<\/li>\n<li>There are no permissions for a state to create law controlling the actions of the Electors in any of the Amendments which deal with the Electoral College. As a matter of fact, the Constitutional references invoke as free a path as is possible for the Electors to vote their conscience, unhindered by laws limiting their choices.<\/li>\n<li>In the writings of Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, Hamilton speaks to the importance of the Electors ensuring that a demagogue, playing to the emotions and prejudices of the citizenry, NOT take control of the government. \u00a0The idea, as I see it, \u00a0is to ensure that a person who, \u00a0from either ignorance or malicious intent, \u00a0would destroy our Democracy in pursuit of their personal agenda.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So&#8230; \u00a0I believe these two, \u00a0major points show that an attack on the Electoral College &#8211; such as the concept of &#8220;Winner Take All&#8221; or of a &#8220;Faithless Elector&#8221; as being a person who refuses to vote for the candidate with the largest number of Electoral Votes null and void. \u00a0I believe that these laws undercut the picture of reality as held by Hamilton, \u00a0 \u00a0and are moving us towards destruction of our Democracy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0I would , rather, argue that the term &#8220;Faithless Elector&#8221; is more appropriate for the Electoral College that chooses to be a rubber stamp and put a dangerous candidate into office simply because they are forced to bow to the the fickle and emotion driven opinions of the voters by law.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Here are a couple of useful links discussing the College:<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/billmoyers.com\/story\/equal-protection-argument-winner-take-electoral-college\/\">http:\/\/billmoyers.com\/story\/equal-protection-argument-winner-take-electoral-college\/<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/federal-register\/electoral-college\/provisions.html\">https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/federal-register\/electoral-college\/provisions.html<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>=-=-=-=-=<br \/>\n<i>Powered by <b><a href=\"http:\/\/blogilo.gnufolks.org\/\">Blogilo<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings and Salutations; The Electoral College, \u00a0as a part of our Presidential Election is rarely a step in the process&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/blog\/2016\/12\/15\/sifting-through-the-ashes-part-two-the-electoral-college\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[386,9,10,12,13,16],"tags":[578,580,577,579],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-thoughts","category-humanity","category-nuttiness","category-politics-2","category-questionable-decisions","category-ruminations","tag-electoral-college","tag-faithless-elector","tag-hamilton","tag-winner-take-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":979,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}