The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: rangerrebew on January 18, 2020, 03:44:19 pm
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January 18, 2020
The Supreme Court has agreed to address a challenge to the Electoral College
By Andrea Widburg
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Donald Trump, however, won the Electoral College by focusing on all states, not just the most populous ones. Since then, Democrats have been bent on destroying the Electoral College by any means short of a constitutional amendment. The Supreme Court has now agreed to take up one of Democrats' attacks on the Electoral College.
The Founders created the Electoral College via Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 in the Constitution. Its purpose reflects the fact that America is not a direct democracy but is, instead, a representative democracy. The Electoral College is one of the many layers the Founders put between the government and the possible madness of the mob.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/the_supreme_court_has_agreed_to_address_a_challenge_to_the_electoral_college.html (https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/the_supreme_court_has_agreed_to_address_a_challenge_to_the_electoral_college.html)
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I seem to recall Obama did not win the popular vote in ‘12. Maybe I’m mis-remembering.
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The story and case are about "Faithless Electors." I wish they were looking at the National Popular Vote compacts, that's far more dangerous.
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I seem to recall Obama did not win the popular vote in ‘12. Maybe I’m mis-remembering.
Obama received 65.9 million votes in 2012, 5 million more than Romney 60.9 million.
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Are what they are calling "Faithless Electors" Today actually "Faithful Electors"? Have the terms become reversed?
The Return of the Faithless Elector
Are we ready for a return to the "original meaning" of the Electoral College?
David Post |The Volokh Conspiracy | 8.28.2019
https://reason.com/2019/08/28/the-return-of-the-faithless-elector/ (https://reason.com/2019/08/28/the-return-of-the-faithless-elector/)
You would be forgiven for not paying a lot of attention to the inner workings of the (oddly-named) "Electoral College"—the actual institution, comprised of 538 State-appointed presidential electors—because under long-standing practice, developed over the past 220 years or so, the Electoral College doesn't really do anything other than to formally and ceremonially ratify the results of the presidential election. We hold an election, we count the votes for each candidate in each of the States, we place the number of presidential electors ("electoral votes") to which each State is constitutionally entitled (#Representatives + #Senators; see above) into the winning candidate's column, we add up the columns, and that's that—game over. The Electoral College's formal ratification of the results a month or so post-election is a mere after-thought, a little bit of Kabuki democracy that has only symbolic significance.
It is abundantly clear that the Electoral College was not designed to have this kind of purely ceremonial function**. Under the Framers' original conception, the Electoral College was to be a true electoral body, its members chosen by the people at large (at least the people who were entitled to vote) for the express purpose of choosing the President and Vice-President. That's why they were called "electors"- people who "elect."