(H/T – Jim Hoft)
A few days after the Democratic Party ignored the will of its voters and selected Barack Obama as its Presidential candidate, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) introduced a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College, which actually elects the President and Vice President, in favor of a nationwide popular vote.
My underlying thoughts on the elimination of the Electoral College remain unchanged from 2006, when an outfit called National Popular Vote made significant inroads on its unconstitutional scheme to have a sufficient number of states join in a compact to neuter the Electoral College. While it is still wrong as wrong can be, at least Sen. Nelson is doing it the way prescribed by the Constitution.
Bill Nelson is a an arogant,Ignorant typical politician. If his BS could be canned, the energy crisis would be over. He is an embarrasment to good floridians and was put in office by the republican party, they ran a half a$$ candidate against him. He is totally unaware of the meaning of shame
There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that needs to be changed in order to have a national popular vote for President. The winner-take-all rule (awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most votes inside the state) is not in the U.S. Constitution. It is strictly a matter of state law. The winner-take-all rule was not the choice of the Founding Fathers, as indicated by the fact that the winner-take-all rule was used by only 3 states in the nation’s first presidential election in 1789. The fact that Maine and Nebraska currently award electoral votes by congressional district is another reminder that the Constitution left the matter of awarding electoral votes to the states. All the U.S. Constitution says is “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.” The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly characterized the authority of the states over the manner of awarding their electoral votes as “plenary” and “exclusive.” A federal constitutional amendment is not needed to change state laws.
The “normal way” of changing the method of electing the President is not a federal constitutional amendment, but changes in state law. The U.S. Constitution gives “exclusive” and “plenary” control to the states over the appointment of presidential electors.
Historically, virtually all of the previous major changes in the method of electing the President have come about by state legislative action. For example, the people had no vote for President in most states in the nation’s first election in 1789. However, nowadays, as a result of changes in the state laws governing the appointment of presidential electors, the people have the right to vote for presidential electors in 100% of the states.
In 1789, only 3 states used the winner-take-all rule (awarding all of a state’s electoral vote to the candidate who gets the most votes in the state). However, as a result of changes in state laws, the winner-take-all rule is now currently used by 48 of the 50 states.
In other words, neither of the two most important features of the current system of electing the President (namely, that the voters may vote and the winner-take-all rule) are in the U.S. Constitution. Neither was the choice of the Founders when they went back to their states to organize the nation’s first presidential election.
In 1789, it was necessary to own a substantial amount of property in order to vote; however, as a result of changes in state laws, there are now no property requirements for voting in any state .
The “normal process” of effecting change in the method of electing the President is specified the U.S. Constitution, namely action by the state legislatures. This is how the current system was created, and this is the built-in method that the Constitution provides for making changes. The abnormal process is to go outside the Constitution, and amend it.
See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com