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Large Majority of Americans Want to End Electoral College
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this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2024
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That’s great but do an electoral college majority want to end the electoral college?
Yeah this headline is like "animals disapprove of farm"
Doesn't matter. Ending the electoral college would require an amendment, and amendments require 3/4 of states to approve them. Abolishing the electoral college benefits California and the smallest states that expect to always side with California no matter what, which doesn't get you to the 38 states required.
It would not. There is already a pact with a bunch of states that say once they have enough support they will put their electoral votes towards the popular vote of the country not the popular vote of their state. If enough states get on board the EC becomes powerless. Because the states determine how they vote.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
They are getting close. A couple more states needed for activation.
And if and when it gets passed, the conservative scotus, which has constantly ruled in favor of states rights being nearly unlimited and that precedent or other writings about the cotus don't count, will buck both these trends and vote that this violates the cotus based on some obscure writing by some founding father.
This SCOTUS would uphold Dred Scott v. Sanford.
Republicans: "States rights!" States: Decriminalize cannabis, affirm women's rights, sign on with the NPVIC, etc... Republicans: "No, not like THAT!"
Probably that interstate compacts have to be approved by Congress. It would be the most obvious angle of attack.
Doesn't end it, merely does an end run around it. Also unlikely to ever take effect, because to get to 270 electoral votes worth of states supporting it you're going to need to get states on board with it who will directly lose influence and/or who generally don't vote in line with California and moving to the winner being decided by national popular vote (whether directly or by using it to pledge electors) essentially makes the result largely determined by turnout in California (both times in recent history the popular vote and electoral vote were not in alignment, the margin for the national popular vote was smaller than the margin in California).
It's a lower bar to reach than actually ending the electoral college, but it's unlikely to succeed for essentially the same reason - you have to get multiple states that will essentially lose any influence over the executive branch if they approve it to approve it.
I read that last part as, “A couple more states needed for Activision” and my blood pressure temporarily spiked lol.
Yea you’re right. I just thought it was funny that a majority of Americans disprove of something that prevents a majority of Americans from being able to choose something
Fair enough. There's an interstate compact that's been joined by several states that does an end run around the electoral college (all member states agree to give their electors to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of their state's votes once 270 electoral votes worth of states join). That's a lower bar than the 3/4 of states needed for an amendment, but will also inevitably face a legal challenge regarding needing federal approval as an interstate compact.
It's still...several states away from going into effect for basically the same reason an amendment on this won't pass - it benefits California and the smallest states that expect to always side with California, which isn't enough to get to 270 electoral votes.
That’s interesting. Do you know which states haven’t yet joined/would be the most likely to flip to get to the total?
Wha?.. Math hard you go ungabunga? California population has 38 million. That's only 8 million more than Texas.
Also, voting wouldn't be by state anyway, so it wouldn't matter? Not all 38 million Californians will vote the exact same way.
Err, ending the electoral college requires a constitutional amendment. Proposing a constitutional amendment requires either 2/3 of state legislatures or 2/3 of both houses of Congress to set in motion and requires 3/4 of states to approve. This is why the ERA was never ratified - it only got 31 states.