Texas could be the linchpin to getting rid of the Electoral College:
https://theweek.com/speedreads/945527/how-texas-could-linchpin-finally-dismantling-electoral-college
That's been my thought since 2016.
But... given the direction things seem to be headed in, will the Dems want it to go away this time?
We got an overwhelming bi-partisan majority of the House to support getting rid of it in 1969, with both Nixon and Humphrey endorsing the measure. But the southern senators blocked it, fearing to lose power. (And given that it was Wallace that the move was in response to, just imaging their deeper motivation.)
But, if we were to get rid of the EC, we'd better offer something of substance to the paranoid middle of the country.
Those middle of the country voters are who put us in this shit.
They’ll get policies that will tangibly make their lives better but they’ll resist because hey! ‘Murica!’
If Dems have the power to make such a move they ought to just do it.
In many situations it is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
At the end of the day they are a part of America and deserve as much of a voice as anyone in Anacostia or South Chicago or East LA or North Philly.
It's well past time, too, for Black and Hispanic men to vote. Hopefully, they are this election.
In 2016, 64% of eligible Black women said they voted, compared with 54% of eligible Black men. The gender gap among White voters was far smaller (3 percentage points). Still, White men and White women were more likely to say they voted than their Black counterparts (67% of White women and 64% of White men in 2016).
Hispanic women outvoted Hispanic men by about 5 points in 2016 (50% vs. 45%). However, the gender gap among Hispanic voters has not been consistent. At times in the past several decades, Hispanic men and Hispanic women have said they voted at roughly similar shares. Among Asian Americans, there has been no consistent gender gap as long as the trend has been measured. (Due to the relatively small size of the Asian American sample, voter turnout data on Asian Americans only goes back to 1992.)Perhaps those lower turnouts among minority groups are due to feeling that their vote doesn't matter. That is a situation that I think we don't want any American to feel, no matter where they are from or who they are.
I think that getting rid of the EC makes for a fairer system, and making it even more fair, would be to use rank-choice voting.
After all, this is a nation in which people love to rate things, be they restaurants, exterminators, dry cleaners, plumbers, hotels, amusement parks, etc.
Giving voters a chance to rank the candidates seems to afford a more democratic method of electing officials. It also seems to create a level of accountability that escapes winner take all election processes.
I'd like to know more about the long term effects of RC voting, as I am sure the pols have figured out at least one way to game it, but on the surface it seems to be more representative and more inclusive a system than the winner-take-all approach.
Poll
5 (45.5%)