Recording Votes: Fixing the Electoral College

Our Electoral College (EC) is out of date. Powerful coalitions exist to push for its effective abolishment and a switch to a popular vote, but the support for this movement is not as strong as proponents had hoped. Constitutionally speaking, it will be easier to update the EC and improve it. In this section, I discuss three proposed methods for use of the EC: Winner-Take-All, District Plan, and Proportional Plan.

This week, AB 837 passed the California Assembly Appropriations Committee. The bill requires polling places across the state to put up giant posters during presidential primaries that inform independent voters (registered as No Party Preference) on which parties allow them to participate in "their" primary.

If my Google News Alerts are a valid indicator, public interest in election process reform has seen a huge increase since the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. We're witnessing this directly here in Oregon as we work to bring Score Runoff Voting (SRV) to public elections for the first time. The purpose of Score Runoff is to finally break the tradeoffs inherent in prior proposals for single-winner elections and enable accurate representative elections that let voters honestly express their opinions on the field of candidates in every vote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8nyZVSVQZg

Exhibit "A" Why Voter's Don't Trust Washington.

CA Rep. Maxine Waters has been one of the most outspoken critics of President Trump. Her colorful language is certainly made for the 24-hour MSM headline-craving industry.

But Waters' response to Mr. Trump's firing of James Comey is a great example of the hypocrisy and double talk occurring in Washington now. On January 13, Waters stated, "The FBI director (Comey) has no credibility." She then stormed out of the room.

Two private corporations, whose operatives are not elected by us, control our federal, state, and local elections. They cheat us. They prevent us from having a democracy! And now, that one of them is hit with a lawsuit for its cheating, the corporate media (who take part in the cheating) don’t even tell us about it. Soon they may, but they will belittle it or defend the undermining of democracy (or our democratic republic, if you want to split hairs) that our Founders risked their lives for and that we have always been told we had.

The justices on the Supreme Court will consider taking up two cases challenging open primaries in Montana and Hawaii Thursday. The lawsuits were brought by the majority parties in each state (Democratic Party in Hawaii; Republican committees in Montana), both asserting that the open primary system severely burdens their First Amendment right to association.