Election changes

Ed brought up some good ideals for changes to the Americian political system. Below is a recap of his post (# 26) form the thread Elections - click on link



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As NE and ME have decided that their electors are best determined by district, who am I, as a citizen of KY, to question their judgment, on this matter? Should the Commonwealth of KY decide to do this, as well, why should the citizens of, say, AL or MI object to KY's manner in this?
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The rule of law is supreme, hence the American near veneration of the Constitution.

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I contend that it (The 'Electoral College' - Ed) is one of the greatest accomplishments of the founders and I hope it is never abolished.
I could hardly agree any more! :thumbs:

There are about five things I would like to see adopted, one by Amendment, that I do not believe would infringe on, or diffuse the important rights of any individual state, and without repealing any current sections of the Constitution.

1.) I would like to see the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico become a state, should she so choose,

2.) I would like to see the accursed 'Nationals' designation (Read very limited 'rights', here!!) permanently removed for the people of American Samoa (AS), and the Samoans to become full citizens of the United States just as are the citizens of the 50 States plus DC, GU, PR, VI, & MP.

3.) I would like to see a uniform poll closing time (preferred) over all time zones when federal elections are held, including AK and HI, and any and all territories, as well, or at least a uniform release of any and all data and returns (less preferable). In other words, not a single precinct, in any jurisdiction is counted until all the polls have closed.

4.) I would like to see the House permanently expanded, by 10, to 445 members.

No Amendment need for any of these 4 proposals, but only Congress to act.

5.) I would like to see the Territories of AS, GUam, Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth (MP), become some sort of quasi 'mini-states', along with the District of Columbia, and each have a full Representative in the House, and 1 electoral vote, as well, without changing the 3 Electors that DC currently receives. (This proposal would require a Constitutional Amendment.)

Incidentally, all my above proposals raise the total number of electors to 549, meaning the President must get 275 EV, up from the current 270. Only MP and AS would get a drastically disproportionate EC and House influence over DC and WY (VI gets some, but not as much), based on population, and the House would be virtually unchanged, after the next census, given current population. The strong House influence, based on population, is mitigated by AS, GU, MP, VI & DC having no Senators.

:sleeping_2:

Ed



# 1 Puerto Rico as a Commonwealth - only if the pass a state constitution that makes English the offical lanuage
( it seems as though PR has voted on the Statehood question - decided to remanin a Commonwealth)

# 2 need to study

# 3 Unifiorm closing time - go If it is 9pm eastern it would be 6 pm PCT and 5 PM Alaska. Not fair for those who are just getting off work. Sounds good in theory but...

# 4 Increase house by 10 to 445 - I would say increse it to 500 AND no State or Commonwealth could have more than 15% of total seats (max of 65)

# 5 Initally, I disagree with it

My additional questions:

S 1 Should the Senate go back to being selected by the state or commonwealth legisature?

S 2 Should States or commowealth split their vote of electors - if so, by congressional district, portional vote, ect.

S 3 Should the Federal govt set up standarzed rquirements for presidental primiaries
ie no cross party voting

S-4