No ID Required to Vote / Electoral College / We the Voter?

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12 years 7 months ago #8609 by Nate Thomas
OK, I am on my drum again! This is nothing new, in fact it is old, but we are coming upon and election year. Will your vote count?

Issue one: You are required to show ID for everything under the sun except for voting. Those that are against it, say that it hold back minorities and I am trying to figure out how in this day and age as we cannot do anything except vote without having an ID of some sort. I am a minority and I am for voter ID requirements. We can cut the fraud that is so rampant. These frauds can still your rights. I do not want the illusion of my vote counting for something; I want it to count, so I am for voter ID!!!!!!!!!!!

Issue two: Our Electoral College personnel have no professional requirements to sit in their position and vote. They are supposed to vote the way of the majority of the region they represent, but what happens if they do not vote how the majority went? Hey, guess what, nothing! There are no penalties and there are only seven states that have placed penalties and none of them are more than $10,000. So, I am not hitting on any of the current people's integrity, but if one could make a million and would only be fined $10,000 is it worth it? Hey, since no one has been tried for this, would it even go, because of the way the constitution is looked at?

Issue three: We the people can vote for the President and he will by popular vote, but it goes to the Electoral College and he could lose. We have had past presidents who have lost the popular vote, but won in the Electoral College and been placed in office! Example Al Gore won over 500,000 votes more than Bush. So he won by popular vote but lost to Bush, because Bush won the Electoral College.

I am not telling you who to vote for, but does it not make sense to require voter ID, have requirements and penalties for people in the Electoral College? Maybe even revisit why we still need one at all!
12 years 7 months ago #8609 by Nate Thomas
toto
12 years 6 months ago #8705 by toto
Presidential elections don't have to be this way.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in more than 3/4ths of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the primaries.

When the bill is enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes– enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538), all the electoral votes from the enacting states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC.

There have been 22,000 electoral votes cast since presidential elections became competitive (in 1796), and only 10 have been cast for someone other than the candidate nominated by the elector's own political party. The electors now are dedicated party activists of the winning party who meet briefly in mid-December to cast their totally predictable rubberstamped votes in accordance with their pre-announced pledges.

If a Democratic presidential candidate receives the most votes, the state's dedicated Democratic party activists who have been chosen as its slate of electors become the Electoral College voting bloc. If a Republican presidential candidate receives the most votes, the state's dedicated Republican party activists who have been chosen as its slate of electors become the Electoral College voting bloc. The winner of the presidential election is the candidate who collects 270 votes from Electoral College voters from among the winning party's dedicated activists.

The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.

In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in virtually every state surveyed in recent polls in closely divided Battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 75%, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in Small states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and Border states: AR – 80%,, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, TN – 83%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: AZ – 67%, CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%. Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.

The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions possessing 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.

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12 years 6 months ago #8705 by toto
Bruce
12 years 6 months ago #8713 by Bruce
I also believe that an ID should be a requirement for voting. Makes no sense whatsoever to allow people to vote without an ID. Without an ID requirement voter fraud becomes not just a possibility but rather a guaranteed fact. Granted, requiring ID will not eliminate voter fraud but it certainly will reduce it.

Regarding the Gore/Bush electoral vs popular vote....considering Gore's several meltdowns after the election I am glad he was not elected...even given Bush's record.
12 years 6 months ago #8713 by Bruce