So it appears as if some Republicans are trying to alter the winner-take-all-electoral-vote model to the win-by-congressional-district model in some Democratic-leaning or battleground states that President Obama won in the 2012 presidential election. These states include: Ohio (18), Virginia (13), Michigan (16), Wisconsin (10), Pennsylvania (20), and Florida (29) - worth a combined 106 electoral votes. Due to Republican gerrymandering, this would have propelled Mitt Romney to the presidency this past election, even though he lost the overall vote by close to five million. With this new model, even though Obama defeated Romney by close to four percentage points in the state of Virginia in November, he would have netted just four of the state's thirteen electoral votes. That's right. In a state where Obama won by roughly 150,000 votes, Romney would have won 9 electoral votes to the president's 4. Make sense? I didn't think so.
If the Republican Party is able to get away with these changes, this country's "democracy" will become a bigger joke than Donald Trump's hair. No longer would the people be deciding who will lead this country. Republicans in the state levels of government would be deciding the matter. So much for the party that believes in freedom and democracy.
For as imperfect as I feel the electoral college is, it almost always rewards the most deserving candidate (as far as the people's votes go), and is therefore a much better model than the congressional-district one being proposed by some Republicans.
A winner-by-popular-vote model would be far superior to the congressional-district one as well, because every vote would need to be tallied and a rightful winner would be declared.
A partial-vote model would also be far superior to the congressional-district model, so long as it took place in every state. If the Democratic candidate won 62.4% of the vote in California, he or she would then win 62.4% of the state's 55 electoral votes (34.3). This model would also be likely to reward the rightful winner in most elections.
The congressional-district model, especially due to the Republican Party's gerrymandering, would be a horrendous joke of a model, and not a funny one at that. Here, while the majority of people in a state may have voted for one candidate, the losing candidate could still be rewarded with the victory. Even thought Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney by nearly 5,000,000 votes this past November, under this model, Mitt Romney would have become the next president.
Honestly, what would be the point of getting involved in the political process then? Why would voting matter? Even if a candidate I voted for in the state of Ohio won the majority of the state's votes, he or she could still lose the state in terms of its electoral votes. This possibility should enrage every person over the age of 18 in this country. I don't care if a person is a self-described conservative, liberal, moderate, Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, etc. - to hear that our votes may not count for anything should enrage us all and we need to do everything in our power to make our voices heard and to stop this attempted abuse on being able to democratically elect a leader of this country. Whether one resides in the state or not, I urge everyone to write or call the Governors of the before-mentioned states: Virginia, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Below I will list contact information to these six states' Governors:
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell - http://www.governor.virginia.gov/CommunityRelations/
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett - http://www.governor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/governor_pa_gov/20650
Ohio Governor John Kasich - http://governor.ohio.gov/Contact/ContacttheGovernor.aspx
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder - http://www.michigan.gov/snyder/0,4668,7-277-57827-267869--,00.html
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker - http://walker.wi.gov/Contact-Us
Florida Governor Rick Scott - http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/virginia-electoral-votes_n_2536561.html
If the Republican Party is able to get away with these changes, this country's "democracy" will become a bigger joke than Donald Trump's hair. No longer would the people be deciding who will lead this country. Republicans in the state levels of government would be deciding the matter. So much for the party that believes in freedom and democracy.
For as imperfect as I feel the electoral college is, it almost always rewards the most deserving candidate (as far as the people's votes go), and is therefore a much better model than the congressional-district one being proposed by some Republicans.
A winner-by-popular-vote model would be far superior to the congressional-district one as well, because every vote would need to be tallied and a rightful winner would be declared.
A partial-vote model would also be far superior to the congressional-district model, so long as it took place in every state. If the Democratic candidate won 62.4% of the vote in California, he or she would then win 62.4% of the state's 55 electoral votes (34.3). This model would also be likely to reward the rightful winner in most elections.
The congressional-district model, especially due to the Republican Party's gerrymandering, would be a horrendous joke of a model, and not a funny one at that. Here, while the majority of people in a state may have voted for one candidate, the losing candidate could still be rewarded with the victory. Even thought Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney by nearly 5,000,000 votes this past November, under this model, Mitt Romney would have become the next president.
Honestly, what would be the point of getting involved in the political process then? Why would voting matter? Even if a candidate I voted for in the state of Ohio won the majority of the state's votes, he or she could still lose the state in terms of its electoral votes. This possibility should enrage every person over the age of 18 in this country. I don't care if a person is a self-described conservative, liberal, moderate, Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, etc. - to hear that our votes may not count for anything should enrage us all and we need to do everything in our power to make our voices heard and to stop this attempted abuse on being able to democratically elect a leader of this country. Whether one resides in the state or not, I urge everyone to write or call the Governors of the before-mentioned states: Virginia, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Below I will list contact information to these six states' Governors:
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell - http://www.governor.virginia.gov/CommunityRelations/
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett - http://www.governor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/governor_pa_gov/20650
Ohio Governor John Kasich - http://governor.ohio.gov/Contact/ContacttheGovernor.aspx
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder - http://www.michigan.gov/snyder/0,4668,7-277-57827-267869--,00.html
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker - http://walker.wi.gov/Contact-Us
Florida Governor Rick Scott - http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/virginia-electoral-votes_n_2536561.html
Comments
Post a Comment