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No change in the outcome of the presidential race for this year, but in 2 more years maybe the R and D candidates will actually propose something to get back all of the L votes from this year.

Precisely!

Like I said, I am not spear heading it. My recollection of the UT student was dead on though! From http://www.striaghtdope.com.." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Notwithstanding these occasional stirrings of interest, the amendment was largely forgotten until 1982, when Gregory Watson, an economics student at the University of Texas at Austin, ran across it while looking for a research topic. Watson wrote a paper arguing that because the amendment did not include a time limit for ratification, it was still in play. He got a C.

I would go back there with my rubber stamped document and tell that professor off!

...or simply because a national election, in the time of oil lamps and quill pens, was just impractical.

You make a decent case, but you conveniently left out that second part of the same sentence. My simple answer to the flaw in this logic is the 2004 election. Shoot me down for using wikipedia, but their numbers state Bush netted 62,040,610 votes and Kerry 59,028,444. Thats is a difference of 3,012,166 votes a narrow margin when you are talking about 121+ million votes. If you ask me, thats about as middle of the road as you get. Based on that phenomenon, I don't see how your argument for the electoral college makes much sense.

And ye have little faith in ratifying a new amendment. The last amendment (27th to be precise) to be ratified was in 1992 by a student from UT. Granted, it was presented 100+ years previously, but unless a time limit is specified for such matters a proposed amendment may go on indefinitely as provided in Supreme Court case Coleman vs. Miller. So all you would have to do is make a good case! But I am not going to argue over what isn't and over something I am not going to spearhead.

Liberty wrote:

kalipsocs wrote:Why? How is it a fair election that a few select people decide the next president than the total count of votes for the entire country? Not to mention no one is riding on horseback as fast as they can to get the vote in! Times change and its hardly fair that Pennsylvania, Ohio, and a couple other states get to choose the next president.

The fear is if we just made it a pure popular vote the folks on the coasts would get to decide who gets to be president. The smaller (Red states) would have less influence.

What I advocate is one vote, one person. Tally up the entire country, see who wins. Doesn't matter where you live then AND your vote actually counts. But I am hijacking this thread with the issue. To get back to the topic, I did vote for Bob Barr this afternoon! So at least its done.

Why? How is it a fair election that a few select people decide the next president than the total count of votes for the entire country? Not to mention no one is riding on horseback as fast as they can to get the vote in! Times change and its hardly fair that Pennsylvania, Ohio, and a couple other states get to choose the next president.

I think you guys should absolutely vote for who you would most like to have in office. If more people voted their conscious, we wouldn't be so entrenched in the 2 party system. Bottom line is the electoral college decides the president, the popular vote does not. So if an independent snaps up enough percentage, that sends a message to the 2 parties that they might wanna adopt some of their main issues. The biggest example was the Populist Party in the 1920s. I won't speak in detail on it because honestly its been some time since I first read about it, but the bottom line is that the Populist snapped up just enough votes to put the big 2 parties on edge. I 100% believe that could happen again just as long as we can break this thinking pattern that you "throw away your vote" by voting for someone else.

Texas is going red like it always does minus a few counties here or there. So you have nothing to lose by voting for someone other than the 2 main parties. And not to change topics, but the electoral college needs to be done away with....period.