Umm... hold on, did something good just happen?
Not yet, but it's getting closer to actually happening. It is at a minimum not a bad thing.
Per the description in the post.
The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.
In other words, they need additional states with a combined total of at least 48 electoral votes to pass the legislation in order for it to take effect. So they're closer, but nothing has happened quite yet.
Right? I'm so thrown off.
I’m not sure it’s actually a good thing for electors to go against their voters but it’s a workaround that may make things better by ensuring the winner is the actual overall popular vote winner
They already largely go against their voters in every election. FPTP means all electors from a state go to one candidate, I could be wrong but I don't believe one candidate has ever gotten remotely close getting 100% of a states vote.
Also, we’re one country right? If we’re one country then everyone’s voice should matter. And currently, there’s not even a strong reason for some people to show up to the polls when their state already swings over 20+ points in one direction.
People in both red, blue, and purple states would all be better represented from the popular vote being in place.
Not necessarily good or bad. There's nothing binding here, just based on good faith reporting. Best case scenario would be all blue states and a few less-red swing states signing on, effectively disenfranchising red states.
Of course I'd bet any amount of money that SCOTUS would rule that a plan like this can't leave out any state's reported result. From there it's a simple step to say "Texas and Florida are reporting 99% votes for Trump", allowing their large populations to rig the results.
Nobody gets disenfranchised. Rather this compact enables the radical idea of "one person, one vote".
States are permitted to enter into compacts with each other without Congressional approval. Democrats everywhere are rediscovering federalism and all its wonders. One thing I'd like my state to do is open a public bank, like North Dakota did. They opened it in 1919, and it was one of the few banks that weathered the Great Recession of 2008 without needing a bailout while Wall Street was on fire. A few years prior, North Dakota was facing a $48M budget crisis. The BND kicked in $25M, reducing the need for layoffs and spending cuts. It does everything a private bank does, but its profits go into North Dakota's general fund, instead of lining the pockets of investors.
Want to know the real kicker? It's basically a socialist enterprise, in the reddest of red states. Republicans fucking hate the Bank of North Dakota, but it's proven too successful and too popular to kill. It would be political suicide for them to even try.
If this passes, my bet is on the two party system becoming a distant memory very quickly.
This is what we need.
Come on America, despite the horrors we see now this is our chance to make things right and show the world that we actually intend to become the country we’ve always pretended to be. Let’s show the world how to rise up, break free of our shackles, and create a society that takes care of each other and our planet.
The cause behind the two party stranglehold is the first past the post system, not the electoral college or voting districts or anything like that (Duverger's law). Choosing the president by popular vote will be great, but it won't solve that.
I don’t think the popular vote compact would diminish the two parties.
As far as I understand it the compact says all the states in the compact will pledge their electoral college electors to the popular vote winner.
The popular vote winner is still just the candidate with the most votes nationally so all the incentives and structures that lead to two parties are still at play.
Third parties are suppressed in a winner take all system largely due to the spoiler effect, a smaller third party pulls votes from a larger party.
Voters would still be incentivized to vote for one of the two major parties witb the same logic as today, a vote for a third party has little chance of winning and so it largely has the effect of denying a vote to the major party you would most align with.
To be clear, I think the way we’ve arranged democracy in America is quite stupid and mathematically guarantees a duopoly of parties both of which become enmeshed with and captured by the donor class. A popular vote compact is better than the goofy electoral college, I just don’t think it really does anything to break the grip of the two party system.
It wouldn't change any of the gerrymandering in the house, and the senate is gerrymandered by its very nature at the country level, why would it change the two party system?
Your point is valid, my hope is that a popular choice would have a wide ranging effect to de-incentivize the current two party system beyond the presidential elections. It could also help push similar legislation beyond presidential elections.
Again, this is my hope -
It could also help push similar legislation beyond presidential elections.
That's actually pretty fair. Hey, we didn't destroy the country... maybe we can try other changes to fix other areas.
We gotta try something, and many other things too. Not trying is a big part of why we’re in this mess.
Am I reading this correctly, 17 States have already banded together to end first-past-the-post voting for POTUS?
It does not end first past the post voting. If it went into effect it would essentially mean that the popular vote would determine the outcome of the presidential election, by forcing the electoral college results to match. The popular vote would still be first past the post.
Nah. This will solve electoral college in maybe 50 years.
We'll fix first past the post in maybe 250 years.
Maybe one day they'll be a democracy, but I don't think the ruling class will allow it
This compact is extremely unlikely to ever be enforceable. The ensuing court cases would make 2000 seem minor.
The Constitution gives the power to the states to appoint and direct their electors.
Supreme Court: "Not like that."
States determine their election laws. Including how they apportion electoral college electors. I'm not sure what the counter-argument to that is.
Not a legal argument but there is at least one state that already floated the idea of undermining the whole thing by refusing to publish their vote totals until all the electors are gathered to vote thereby preventing the popular vote from being determined ahead of time.
Then couldn't they just ignore that state in the tally? It's just a quick way to disenfranchise your own state.
My vote doesn’t matter as I’m from a state that has been democratic since I was born.
With the compact taking effect, your vote would matter again, every vote would matter.
well make sure it stays that way.
I hope it accounts for what happens if those States’ votes equal/exceed 270 at one time but then electoral fuckery occurs and they drop below that number due to their bullshit census tallies. Because we all know Repubs will pull it in a heartbeat.
If this was ever going to pass, it would be during this time.
I’d love it so much if this were the case.
Doesn't really fix anything as long as it's a binary option, where all power goes to the winner.
To improve democracy in USA, USA needs a parliamentary system, that allows representation by many parties, and a majority in that system decides who forms the government, and also has the power to overturn the government.
Don't let perfect get in the way of good. It this had been in effect, we would never have had Gee Dubya and Trump as presidents.
Yeah it's kinda sad how Palestine (with a Parliament including opposition to Hamas) is more democratic than the US
As interesting as this sounds - I honestly can't see it working.
Can you imagine how Californians would react if the state gave its votes to Trump after he won the popular vote?
I imagine a democracy not being run by slave-era tools like the electoral college.
It's just a good thing trump can't run again and he's besmudged MAGA movemenr for the most part. They're very unpopular at the moment.
Amendment 15 VERY CLEARLY says he can't be President. VERY clearly. And the Supreme Court literally created a bullshit ruling pretending it doesn't.
It's not even up for debate. That's what it LITERALLY says:
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
So...
We'll, to many people it was very clear he couldn't run the second time, given the insurrection attempt. But here we are.
There's nothing stopping him from running as Vance's VP, technically. We all know he'd still try to act like he's president
I hope you’re right and there is another legit election.
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