Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Direct Popular Election of Presidents and Standardized Voting Method

The Electoral College might be the last bastion of institutional elitism -- the last federal election in which a few can usurp the vote of the many. And it's time to correct that. 

In the beginning of the republic, U.S. Senators were selected by state legislatures. Therefore which ever party controlled the state legislatures effectively controlled the composition of the U.S. Senate. This undemocratic and indirect election of U.S. Senators was changed to statewide popular voting for U.S. Senators in 1913. 

In order to form a more perfect union, it is now our generation's responsibility to change our process for electing U.S. Presidents from an  undemocratic and indirect Electoral College to direct popular vote in Presidential elections.


For some time now We the People have suffered through hanging chads, electronic voting machines pre-loaded with votes and other problems, and, in 2012, ballots packed with dozens of referendum items that confuse issues and slow down voting to a snail's pace. 

Do you recall the electoral process vs. popular vote mess in the 2000 Presidential election when a confusing ballot and inefficient hole-punch ... and the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Florida Supreme Court and stopped recounts ... got in the way of democracy?

Do you remember when a College Elector from North Caroline switched votes in 1968: S/he was committed to Richard Nixon but decided instead to vote for George Wallace? 

Have you heard about Redmap: The Republican gerrymandering plan that configured Republican-dominated states' legislative districts to heavily favor the Republican party to the extent that they lost popular vote but won enough districts in 2012 election to retain control of the House of Representatives for 2013-2014? 

Have you noticed all of the current 2013 plan by Redmap to assign Presidential electors by Congressional district rather than by Statewide vote in states where Republicans control state goernments?  now the It's called Republican "Plan B" scheme to issue electoral college electors by Congressional District

Republican "Redmap Plan B" would remove even the statewide popular vote for U.S. President! 

These cumulative and more frequently occurring outrages have built to a crescendo ... leading us to open the windows ... and to shout ...

ENOUGH!!!! 

It's time to correct the problems by switching nationwide to direct popular voting for President of the United States.

It's time to correct the problems by the Federal government to unify the election process for Federal elective offices by standardizing the voting method. Restore federal democracy. The states should not elect the U.S. President separately, by widely varying voting methods. 

We the People should elect our President directly as a nation. We the People should vote with the same nationwide method for voting!

We the People should demand that our federal government cut out the middlemen of state legislatures scrambling the methods and the middlemen of the various voting machines, especially electric ones that continually have been shown to be tampered.

Voting method for federal office elections falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government. State and local elections fall under the jurisdiction of each state. (Although states have their own jurisdiction, it's likely that the state and local elections will use the same method selected for federal elections rather than require voters to use 2 machines and/or 2 days.)

It's time. The federal government should pay for all federal office elections, restore paper balloting that are read and then retained as receipts for poll challengers to match against machine counts, and cut out the middlemen of the Electoral College so We the People can directly elect our President with direct popular vote ... starting with the 2016 election.

It's time.

By Steven J. Reichenstein

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