Re:15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
by gmoot on Thursday August 22, 2019 @01:19AM
(#20764871)
It was indeed intended to prevent populism; the idea is that instead of voting for the president you vote for a group of people who you trust to then choose a president. But it has never in practice worked that way.
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Re:15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
by rtkwe on Thursday August 22, 2019 @03:54PM
(#20771769)
And in fact many states electors are not legally allowed to do that any more.
Re:15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
by justin66 on Friday August 23, 2019 @09:30AM
(#20777341)
The question of whether faithless electors are allowed to be... faithless (ahem) is currently working itself through the courts, which is remarkable:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/22/he-tried-st...
Re:15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
by rtkwe on Friday August 23, 2019 @10:59AM
(#20778310)
Interesting, though this sounds like it would really hamper the idea of the national popular vote compact which I'm personally pulling for. And really calls into question the whole electoral system if the electors cannot be constrained by their states at all. Just bribe or threaten 271 people and the whole presidency is yours really since states can't invalidate faithless votes...
Re:15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
by justin66 on Friday August 23, 2019 @12:32PM
(#20779270)
> though this sounds like it would really hamper the idea of the national popular vote compact which I'm personally pulling for.
I'm a supporter of NPV. I don't think it's likely to be a problem, although this feels like something that will shake out a lot further in the federal courts.