Nelson (D-Fla.) bill would abolish Electoral College

[babylonsister]

Nelson bill would abolish Electoral College
By Michael O'Brien
Posted: 06/06/08 05:18 PM


Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) introduced a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College on Friday, less than a week after the Democrats settled on how to handle delegates from Florida at their national convention.

“It’s time for Congress to really give Americans the power of one-person, one-vote, instead of the political machinery selecting candidates and electing our president,” Nelson said in a release announcing the amendment.

Nelson had announced he would offer the legislation in an address to his state’s senate in March.

Nelson said his principal argument for making the change is that the Electoral College permits a candidate with fewer votes nationally to win the presidency by capturing narrow victories in big states. In 2000, then-Vice President Al Gore won the popular votes but George W. Bush won the Electoral College.

Nelson cited that election along with this year’s contentious Democratic primary in Florida as reasons for his legislation. He sued the DNC last fall for initially refusing to recognize Florida’s full delegation at the Democratic National Convention.

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/nelson-bill-would-abolish-electoral-college-2008-06-06.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Hillary introduced a similar bill in 2001

It's now sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

[KoKo]

2. If Bill Nelson of Florida is proposing this...then I'm AGAINST IT!

He's a DINO to his CORE...check out his TWIN...who always votes with the Lieberman Crowd....

[Hobarticus]

4. Even if it's good thing?

[KoKo]

6. Bill Nelson doesn't ever do a good thing unless it benefits Repugs...

Check out his votes and see what kind of Dem he pretends to be.

[Hobarticus]

8. Just ignore that it's Bill Nelson for a moment...

Don't you think one person/one vote is ideal, no matter who introduces the bill?

I don't see how that would help Repugs, at all.

[Canuckistanian]

14. The devil is in the details

And I wouldn't trust Nelson to craft this bill.

In fact, I'm a little surprised he's even pushing it.

He seems to be benefitting just fine from the present system.

[DireStrike]

9. I assume he thinks mccain can win pop vote against obama

That would also allow them to spread out their cheating a lot more, in every precinct in every state.

[BlueManDude]

10. Bull - this needs to happen. Elec College is a big advantage for the GOP.

[ngant17]

17. True, Nelson goes off to the right side too much

but he occassionally does try to make up for it, and this proposal sounds like a well-intentioned plan to bring real democracy to the USA.

Nelson may appear to be anti-Cuban Revolution, but he seems to give only token support to the Miami exiles and he doesn't go out of his way to try to destroy the Cuban socialist system, unlike Lieberman, Torricelli, et. al.

It may take a while before progressive voices in Florida can have genuine representatives in office. I think it will happen eventually, it might take a serious economic depression to wake the rest of the crowd, though.

[panader0]

3. On the surface, I'm all for it.

The election process needs a massive overhaul, and the outdated electoral college seems a good place to start.

[rocktivity]

5. Either make it porportional for all 50 states or get rid of it altogether!

:bounce:
rocknation

[Eric J in MN]

7. Currently, electoral votes = Senators + Reps.

If they made it just Reps, it would be more proportional than now.

Maybe you mean proportional within a state, which would be similar to abolishing the electoral college.

[hokies4ever]

12. No, the logic sucks either way, don't try to rationalize with him.

:rofl:

[rocktivity]

15. I mean that if you get if you get, say, 55% of the popular vote

you get 55% of the electoral votes. But of course that doesn't work unless all fifty states do it.

:headbang:
rocknation

[hokies4ever]

11. It's pandering to his constituency.

It doesn't have a chance in hell of getting passed. It would need to be passed by a most states, and many small states have absolutely no incentive whatsoever of passing this amendment. Iowa is important now, but it would not be nearly as important with this amendment passed.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. Not really, having the electoral college helps Florida

You would never see candidates going down to Florida every four years to pander to Cuban Americans and retired Jewish people if it wasn't for the fact that Florida was a swing state with 27 electoral votes.

[AZ Criminal JD]

13. This is a tempest in a teapot.

This bill gets introduced every few years. It always goes nowhere. Constitutional amendments require 3/4s of the states to ratify. Smaller states will never agree to this and so this will fail as it always has.

[HooptieWagon]

16. Bill Nelson is a braying jackass.

[ladjf]

18. Good idea.

[Hippo_Tron]

20. That would be wonderful, no more pandering to tiny interests just because they live in swing states

In particular, the Cuban Embargo would be gone almost overnight.

[UTUSN]

21. Yessss, I don't *care* what!1 n/t