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Brian Floyd
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 8674
Posted: 13 August 2024 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

We'll never get rid of the Electoral College unless there's a Democratic supermajority to vote into law AND remove Supreme Court judges when they shoot it down. 

And that will never happen. 
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Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 4649
Posted: 14 August 2024 at 12:40am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

It would take more than a Democratic supermajority, it would take a Constitutional amendment to get rid of the Electoral College.  The Supreme Court cannot "shoot down" a Constitutional amendment, but of course amending the Constitution is incredibly difficult regardless of the issue.  At present, there is a widely-held (accurate) perception that the EC benefits Republicans, so an amendment modifying or eliminating the EC is not going to happen, nor even get past the discussion stage.  The only way it might happen in the future is if the voter demographics shift again to the point where there is not one party who obviously benefits from the system.

We almost had a really good shot in 2004.  John Kerry lost the popular vote by three million, but he only lost in Ohio by a little over 100,000 votes.  If he had managed to eke out a win in Ohio that would have put him over the top in the EC count, and we would have had two consecutive elections in which the popular vote winner did not win the Electoral College: one from each party.  That might have been enough to create a groundswell of bipartisan public sentiment against the EC.  But sadly, that moment passed.  As long as the Democrats continue to be unable to garner substantial support from rural working class whites, it's going to continue to be a problem.




Edited by Jason Czeskleba on 14 August 2024 at 12:42am
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Charles Valderrama
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4866
Posted: 15 August 2024 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Ahead of his press conference today, the Harris campaign just released a statement with this subject line:

"Donald Trump To Ramble Incoherently and Spread Dangerous Lies in Public, but at Different Home."

More accurate than any of the media coverage will be. LOL

-C!
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Evan S. Kurtz
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 04 July 2022
Location: Canada
Posts: 52
Posted: 16 August 2024 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I am, in total seriousness, probably going to go on anti-anxiety medication during this election. It's hard for me to function without enough sleep and I tend to struggle with that when I am worried about the future so much.

I believe Harris will win, I believe she'll win by a lot, but she needs to win in an landslide because, well, this is happening: MAGA's plan to "legally" steal the 2024 election. Don't believe they have the horses to pull it off? These swing state election officials are Pro-Trump election deniers. 


Edited by Evan S. Kurtz on 16 August 2024 at 12:20pm
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133688
Posted: 16 August 2024 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

As I’ve said, I do not look forward to waking up on November 6. It’s going to be very unpleasant no matter who wins.
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9030
Posted: 16 August 2024 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Unfortunately, you're 100% correct, JB.
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9030
Posted: 19 August 2024 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

And now all eyes turn towards Chicago for the next few days. I'm already very glad I decided to take the week off rather then have to head downtown to work.  While I work nowhere near the "festivities", the Loop in general is going to be a madhouse.
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3502
Posted: 19 August 2024 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Likely not going to be too much drama inside the hall, other than that which is by design. The big question mark is not how the Gaza protests outside will go down but how the authorities will respond.  I have a feeling that there's enough institutional memory in the DNC to not make it a 1968-style head-cracking party, and Mayor Johnson certainly doesn't seem like Daley redux.

I personally hope the protesters' voices are heard on the floor and that Kamala finds a better way to thread the needle on her Israel/Palestine messaging - thus far, it's been the major weakness I've seen from her rallies, and likely not an issue that's going away any time soon.


Edited by Dave Kopperman on 19 August 2024 at 1:51pm
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3502
Posted: 19 August 2024 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

LINK

An earnest and folksy former high-school football coach who cracks dad jokes and throws down pop-culture references. Has anyone pointed out that Harris named Ted Lasso as her running mate?
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Trevor Krysak
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 4163
Posted: 19 August 2024 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

 Brian Floyd wrote:
We'll never get rid of the Electoral College unless there's a Democratic supermajority to vote into law AND remove Supreme Court judges when they shoot it down. 

And that will never happen.

 Jason Czeskleba wrote:
It would take more than a Democratic supermajority, it would take a Constitutional amendment to get rid of the Electoral College.  The Supreme Court cannot "shoot down" a Constitutional amendment, but of course amending the Constitution is incredibly difficult regardless of the issue.  At present, there is a widely-held (accurate) perception that the EC benefits Republicans, so an amendment modifying or eliminating the EC is not going to happen, nor even get past the discussion stage.  The only way it might happen in the future is if the voter demographics shift again to the point where there is not one party who obviously benefits from the system.

That might be the case but change has been made in a different direction. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact currently has been adopted by 17 states and the District of Columbia. The agreement is that all participating states award their electoral votes based on the popular vote. The electoral vote count adds up to 209 votes. If more states participated it could lead to a shift in how it is decided, That might face pushback from congress or possibly the courts but the framework is there to utilize the popular vote rather than an archaic and outdated method like the electoral college.

If this years election is like 2020 (i really hope not) and there's a lot of turmoil over the results it might bring more states to the compact. We shall see. Republican Governors have typically vetoed any legislation passed to support this. So the state by state battle has typically fallen to party lines.
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Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member


Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 4649
Posted: 19 August 2024 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

The underlying problem with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is the same problem with amending the Consitution, just on a smaller scale.  The only states that have enacted it are blue states, and there aren't enough blue states to total 270 electoral votes.  Red states are never going to enact it, and even getting one swing state to do it seems to be an impossible lift.  So it's not a viable solution to the problem at this point.  And that's not even getting into the fact that if somehow they did get enough states to enact it, there would be a legal challenge that would presumably end up in the Supreme Court, where justice goes to die.


Edited by Jason Czeskleba on 20 August 2024 at 1:03am
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John Byrne

Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133688
Posted: 20 August 2024 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

So now Trumf says he’s better looking than Kamala….
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