Thread: CA. Barbara Boxer wants to abolish the Electoral College

Barbara Boxer wants to abolish the Electoral College

Nov. 15, 2016
Updated 10:50 a.m.
By JEFF HORSEMAN / STAFF WRITER


Before she leaves the U.S. Senate, Barbara Boxer wants to change the way presidents are elected.

The California Democrat announced Tuesday, Nov. 15 she would introduce a bill to abolish the Electoral College and determine the White House winner by popular vote. The legislation comes after Donald Trump won the presidency by gaining more electoral votes than Hillary Clinton, even though more people voted for her.

Under the Constitution, the winner of the electoral vote, not the popular vote, becomes president. There have been a handful of times in U.S. history in which the popular vote winner did not capture the Oval Office.

“This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency,” Boxer said in a news release. “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts.”

The release included quotes from Trump in which he criticized the Electoral College, including statements he made in an interview that aired Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

“You know, I'm not going to change my mind just because I won,” he said. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.”

But this morning, Trump defended the Electoral College on Twitter. “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play,” he tweeted. “Campaigning is much different!”

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Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump

The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!
5:40 AM - 15 Nov 2016

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Boxer’s bill faces long odds of passage in a GOP-controlled Senate. Even if it passes, it would need three-fourths of the states to ratify it because it would amend the Constitution.

Boxer is retiring after more than 20 years as a senator. Her replacement will be fellow Democrat and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who defeated Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, earlier this month.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/e...ara-wants.html

This proposal calls for popular vote to determine winner

Yes, we need to keep the Electoral College. This election is all the proof we need that our country has not advanced far enough to the point of eliminating it. When a CORRUPT MEDIA can poison the populace based on lies and bias for one candidate over another, when much of our population still relies so heavily especially in states like California and New York based on the reports of the CORRUPT MEDIA and dirty tricks by dishonest candidates, with heavy illegal alien populations, unfortunately our people across the country are not yet advanced enough to eliminate the Electoral College.

Our Founders were very smart about politics.

Why of course she does. Shove some more illegal aliens and refugees in those friendly states with large populations and you have your guaranteed wins forward.

They really do think we are the stupid people.

Trump still not a fan of the Electoral College

Dylan Stableford Senior editor
Yahoo News November 14, 2016
1,029 Comments

President-elect Donald Trump once tweeted that the Electoral College is “a disaster for a democracy.”

But now that it has helped him to win the election, does he still believe that?

“I’m not going to change my mind just because I won,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.”

Trump’s clinched his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in last week’s election by amassing more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win. He won 290 to Clinton’s 228, with Michigan and New Hampshire still too close to call.

But the Democratic nominee currently leads Trump in the popular vote by more than 700,000 votes (61.3 million to 60.6 million) with several million left to be counted.

If her lead holds, Clinton would be the first presidential candidate since 2000 to win the popular vote while losing the White House. (In that year, Al Gore lost the Electoral College to George W. Bush.) Clinton, who was then first lady, called at the time for the college to be disbanded so that no one would ever have to doubt again whether his or her vote counted.

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Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump

The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.
8:45 PM - 6 Nov 2012

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Meanwhile, a Change.org petition urging members of the Electoral College to ignore their states’ votes and cast their ballots for Clinton has gathered more than 4 million signatures.

“Mr. Trump is unfit to serve,” Elijah Berg, who launched the petition, wrote on Change.org. “His scapegoating of so many Americans, and his impulsivity, bullying, lying, admitted history of sexual assault, and utter lack of experience make him a danger to the Republic.”

Berg argued that the Electoral College can award the White House to either candidate and should use its own “most undemocratic” institution to ensure a “democratic result,” going on to say, “24 states bind electors. If electors vote against their party, they usually pay a fine. And people get mad. But they can vote however they want and there is no legal means to stop them in most states.”

On the eve of the 2012 election between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, Trump — who had backed Romney — ripped the Electoral College as “a disaster for a democracy.”

But in his interview with “60 Minutes,” Trump signaled that he has softened his position a bit as president-elect.

“There’s a reason for doing this, because it brings all the states into play,” he said. “And there’s something very good about that.”

Trump added: “I respect it. I do respect the system.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sti...190421409.html

Guess it boils down to who wins as to whether you support it or not. Clinton lost, get use to it.

Originally Posted by Jean

Guess it boils down to who wins as to whether you support it or not. Clinton lost, get use to it.

The change wouldn't affect this election.
It would only be for future elections.

Until California joins the 21st century, we need to keep the Electoral College. It's so odd, California used to be a leader in what was good and right. Now it's all bogged down with I feel is foreign influence by illegal aliens, which is very sad. California has only counted 70% of its votes so far. I mean this is the high-tech capital of the world and they're still counting votes a week after the election. I guess it's all those "provisional" or absentee ballots? Don't know, but any news you all have on it, let us know!!

Gallup Poll out today has Trump with 62% on creating jobs, 60% of improving the economy and 59% stopping illegal immigration. Just saw this on MSNBC.

Dem introducing bill to abolish Electoral College

BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 11/15/16 01:32 PM EST 701

12,857

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will introduce legislation on Tuesday to get rid of the Electoral College, after Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election despite leading in the popular vote.

"In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote," Boxer said in a statement. "In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted, 'The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.' I couldn't agree more. One person, one vote!"

She added that Clinton, whom she supported, is "on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except Barack Obama.""The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately," she said.

Clinton is currently leading Trump by nearly a million votes, according to a Cook Political Report tracker of the national popular vote, but Trump won the Electoral College, leading the former secretary of State 290-232.

According to Pew, Clinton would be the fifth person to win the popular vote but lose the election, with the most recent being Al Gore in 2000.

Boxer's legislation would amend the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College. Even if it is approved by Congress it would need to be approved by three-fourths of the states within seven years before it would take effect.

Trump called the Electoral College "genius" on Tuesday morning, despite past criticism.

The tweet comes after Trump said during a "60 Minutes" interview on Sunday that he still has issues with the Electoral College.

“I’m not going to change my mind just because I won,” the president-elect said. “But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-actio...ctoral-college

States (Still) Counting Absentee Ballots


Julia Glum
IBTimes Nov 15, 2016, 6:08 AM

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These outstanding votes, mostly cast in states that already supported Hillary Clinton, won't reverse Donald Trump's victory.
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More than 42 million Americans voted before Election Day, but their ballots may still be getting counted a week later.

Republican Donald Trump was declared the president-elect early Wednesday morning, beating out Democrat Hillary Clinton in Electoral College votes. However, as states have continued to tally their results, she's pulled ahead in popular votes.

According to data compiled by David Wasserman, the United States House editor of the Cook Political Report, Clinton was up by nearly 963,000 votes as of Tuesday morning. That total included 129.4 million votes — and there were "still millions left to go," Wasserman added on Twitter.

The numbers keep changing because states like California and Washington are still working on their provisional and absentee ballots, which were considered valid if they were postmarked by Election Day, the Atlantic reported. Don't freak out: These votes, mostly cast in areas that already supported Clinton, won't reverse Trump's victory.

It may take a while, but they will be counted, contrary to internet legends that allege absentee votes only matter in close races, according to the nonprofit Vote.org.

"All ballots submitted according to state laws are counted in every election," the Department of Defense's Federal Voting Assistance Program explains on its website.

"The media often will report the projected outcome of the election before all of the ballots are counted. In a close election, the media may report that the outcome cannot be announced until after the absentee ballots are counted. However, all ballots, including absentee ballots, are counted in the final totals for every election — and every vote (absentee or in-person) counts the same."

Authorities could be calculating votes for weeks, even though the Electoral College meets on Dec. 19.

Last general election cycle, the final vote tally was published Jan. 4, 2013, according to Bloomberg. The Federal Election Commission put out its official 2012 election results on Jan. 17, 2013.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/states-...140852782.html