As noted earlier, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson earlier this month introduced SJR 4, a proposed constitutional amendment to elect the president directly by popular vote. The same proposal has been introduced in the U.S. House by Congressman Gene Greene (D-Tx). It is HJR 9.
The Congressional Delegates from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa have introduced HJR 2, another proposed constitutional amendment. It says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote in the election for President and Vice President shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of residency in a territory or commonwealth of the United States. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” This proposed amendment is badly worded. There is no election for President and Vice President mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, unless one is referring to the vote of the electoral college, or actions by Congress when the electoral college fails to elect a president or vice-president. Furthermore, this proposed amendment says nothing about presidential electors. When the Constitution was amended to let residents of the District of Columbia participate in presidential elections, that amendment specified how many electoral votes D.C. would have.
HR 59, by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tx) would forbid states from disenfranchising ex-felons, in federal elections.
S48, by Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) would outlaw all vote-counting equipment that does not create a paper trail, if it is purchased by election administrators after December 31, 2012. Thanks to Electionline Weekly for this news.
With unequal ballot access across the 50 states, this would be patently unfair. Votes in states with restrictive ballot access and less competition would be less cannabalized than votes from states with freer ballot access, say Florida, Colorado etc.
Although this bill is not Constitutional, if passed, it should include national ballot access that is much easier and simpler than the current system.
I hope Ron Paul re-introduces his federal ballot access bill this year. He introduced it in the last session but there was virtually no activism in support of it. The issue will get renewed attention if we make headway against the Electoral College.
Sheila Jackson Lee, a former judge, once stated that several of the authors of the Federalist Papers were from Massachusetts. Two of the three authors, of course, were from New York, and the other was from Virginia.
The Electoral College is here to stay, Richard.
Rep. Jackson Lee was an assistant municipal judge for 2 years. In Texas, there are district courts, county courts, and justice of the peace courts. The municipal courts deal with violations of municipal ordinances. She did run for district court judge.
Nelson’s SJR4 proposes a constitutional amendment. It gives plenty of authority to Congress to directing the manner of electing the president. Congress would have authority to provide for national primaries, runoffs, etc.
`Section 2. Congress may determine the time, place, and manner of holding the election, the entitlement to inclusion on the ballot, and the manner in which the results of the election shall be ascertained and declared.’.
Note: Only two e’s in “Green”
# 3 Some earlier folks thought that slavery was here to stay (ZAP 13th Amdt), that having the party hacks in the State legislatures appoint party hack U.S.A. Senators was here to stay (ZAP 17th Amdt), etc. etc.
The Electoral College is a nonstop timebomb waiting to go off again — as in 1860 — count the about 620,000 resulting dead with thousands more mentally and physically maimed for life on both sides in the horrific Civil War I — due to the party hacks on both sides.
Uniform definition of Elector in ALL parts of the U.S.A.
Equal ballot access
P.R. legislative
A.V. executive – judicial
(pending major education about head to head math).
Way too difficult for the armies of party hack MORONS in the gerrymander Congress to understand.
These all seem like well intentioned bills, however, I wish these members of Congress would get together to create some cohesiveness with the bills, perhaps establish a committee, or just have a working group, mobilize the grassroots and introduce a package, so fellow members have something general to push for.
#6: There have been 700-plus attempts to change or abolish the Electoral College. The small states will never go along with its abolition.
I don’t get your point about the 1860 election. In a four-way race, Lincoln won a majority of the electoral votes after getting 39.9% of the popular vote. The Democrats had a North-South split.
#8 Gee — 39.9 percent was NOT a majority of the POPULAR votes.
Lincoln was a party hack extremist — pushed on by the even worse party hack *radical* Elephants elected in the 1856- 1858- 1860- 1862- 1864 gerrymander elections.
Result — the mass murder of lots of Americans in the many short range slaughterhouse battles in 1861-1865 (along with lots of military camp disease deaths).
THE gerrymander CRISIS is coming to the U.S.A. — to the extent that the current economic mess is NOT it — due to the accumulated effects of every gerrymander election since 4 July 1776.
#9: There’s a long list of U. S. presidents who were elected after getting less than 50% of the popular vote– J. Q. Adams, Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, Wilson, Nixon, Clinton (twice), G. W. Bush, etc., etc.