Re: OT:Thanksgiving

"Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I find this staggering. How can Democracy work when every State is allowed to interpret who can and cannot vote?

How could anyone interpret this mess?

There should be one clear law for the Union: "Everyone not in jail has the right to vote."

Anything less creates schisms and classes in the society.

The historical reason for the varying rules between states has to do with how the election process is defined in the Constitution.
It was the intent of the Founding Fathers that states have a large degree of autonomy, and that the Federal government be relatively
weak. Most early Americans fled oppression in Europe, and did not like the idea of a powerful central government here.

(The primary reason for the U.S. Civil War was to reverse this, not to free slaves, as is commonly thought. Freeing slaves was the
tentative excuse, but not the reason. For example, shortly before the Civil War, the southern states submitted a bill to free the
slaves peacefully over a few years, but the northern states voted it down. If the intent had been just to abolish slavery, that
would have been the time to do it, and avoid war. Forcing the southern states to give up slavery overnight would have destroyed the
economy. Only an idiot would have thought that a good idea, because the slaves would have been starving along with everyone else in
the South. Yet that was what the southern states were presented with, or secession.)

The Constitution decreed that, in presidential elections, the states would send electoral delegates to Washington to evaluate and
vote for the candidate they believed would make the best president. The number of electoral votes a state has are actually the
number of electoral delegates, based on population. The primary reason for a national census every 10 years in the U.S. is to
determine this, and the number of representatives each state elects to the U.S. House of Representatives. This made sense in the
18th century, well before modern communications and computers. Because the states select and send the electoral delegates, they
decide how the delegates are to be selected, including who can vote for them. In modern times, political parties nominate delegates
who are sworn to vote for a particular candidate. In times past, the ballots only had the names of the delegate candidate, not the
person running for office. Eventually the candidate's names were added along with the delegates. IIRC, in Alabama, the delegate's
name may no longer appear.

Many people (including me) believe the Constitution would be better if amended so presidential elections are by straight popular
vote. Senate and House elections would probably still be determined by the states, similarly to now. The problem with a
Constitutional amendment is that, once you open the long and complex process, you open the door for every wacky amendment out there,
and the people would only get to vote the whole thing up or down. We could be stuck with a stupid amendment very few people want, or
wasting the whole process by voting it down to avoid that.
--
Judson McClendon judmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT - Obama clinches, Hill wants to be Veep
    ... They said 'pledged delegates' and said oh my gosh the super ... Yes 'they' said...pundits and Obama supporters and you heard it ... overriding the popular vote slash pledged delegates. ... so much damage to a member of the same party during a campaign. ...
    (alt.sports.basketball.nba.la-lakers)
  • Re: NBC: Superdelegates say pledged delegates dont matter
    ... delegates on his own, then the superdelegates have no role. ... an undemocratic fashion by so many states and if the popular vote was ... Barack Obama picked up 5 more delegates to the Democratic ... Convention than Hillary Clinton in Alaska.. ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
  • Re: NBC-Hillary: Please Fall on Your Sword
    ... the popular vote, they're virtually the same. ... That's why Hillary could win Nevada but Obama won more delegates. ... and knew the punishment before knowingly moving their primaries. ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
  • Re: Fired Up and Ready to Go!!! Barack the Vote!!!
    ... My precinct sent 11 delegates to the ... concerned that if Hillary is elected that we will remain in Iraq and Bin ... running for President will cement large voting blocks of the Republican ... party to vote in lock step against a Hillary presidency. ...
    (rec.music.gdead)
  • Re: NBC - How Hillary Can Still Win the Nomination
    ... 2027 delegates to Obama's 1990 delegates. ... vote without coming much closer in the pledged delegates. ... Poor CNN is still under the belief (promoted by Obama) that the ... Why do Obama supporters think that this is a majority-of-pledged-delegate wins kind of thing? ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)