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Qasim Rashid, Esq.

Let’s be explicitly clear.

The Electoral College exists because enslavers wanted to count their enslaved in their vote total without freeing them, much less giving them voting rights. That is the one purpose the Electoral College ever served.

Pro Electoral College is pro white supremacy. Abolish it.

33 comments
Efilroftsul

@QasimRashid The Electoral College also grades the Republicans on a curve in presidential elections. So much for "one person, one vote."

Michael Busch

@Efilroftsul @QasimRashid Here in #Minnesota , the MNGOP has publicly opposed abolishing the Electoral College because they know that without it, no GOP candidate would have been elected POTUS in the last 25 years.

But that simultaneously means that they are saying that their own supporters should have no say in electing POTUS, because Minnesota has not gone for the GOP in any presidential election in last 50 years.

Their racism extends to effectively denying their own supporters a vote.

kerplunk

@michael_w_busch Bush won the popular vote in 2004. The EC wasn't a factor there. I agree with you overall, but it is *possible* for the modern GOP to win by popular vote...just very unlikely.

Michael Busch

@kerplunk Bush 43 did win the popular vote in 2004, but only because the Electoral College and voter suppression led to his initial election in 2000.

I tried to phrase my earlier post to include that. I guess I did not succeed.

kerplunk

@michael_w_busch Fair enough. That's certainly true about 2000. The fact remains, though: under the right circumstances, the GOP can win the popular vote. I think anyone assuming otherwise is making a mistake.

Cairo Braga

@QasimRashid not to mention it's actually antidemocratic, considering its origins and mechanics.

Julie Goldberg

@QasimRashid I don’t know how we get small states to ratify the necessary amendment. It would be easier to get statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Lyricismist

@Julie @QasimRashid To really set the cat among the pigeons, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands could be included too.

John-Mark Gurney

@Julie
By having the stares that care about democracy do this:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation

No need to abolish the college when you can work around it.
@QasimRashid

Julie Goldberg

@encthenet @QasimRashid The same states that would never ratify a Constitutional amendment to abolish the E.C. would also never agree to join the compact.

Scarlet Phoenix collective

@QasimRashid I've always said we should. All it does is insure that the conservatives have their fucking way For serious. It is *litterally* the only reason that orange thing tgot in office; Hilary won the popular vote. -T.

Osteopenia Powers

@we_the_spc @QasimRashid
But! But! What about the ghosts of Montanan elders who ceded their national sovereignty for the guarantee that their empty, cow-friendly expanses would have more say over the presidency than actual human beings? How will their empty, cow-friendly expanse have a say in our democracy?

crazyeddie

@Osteopenia_Powers @we_the_spc @QasimRashid The elders of Montana had time machines as well as cows. They traveled back and invented the Senate.

MacCruiskeen

@QasimRashid And also, it broke literally the first time it needed to be used. It was a botched job from the beginning.

Also: the other reason the EC is screwed up is the Reapportionment Act of 1929, which was passed to benefit rural white voters.

Dave Goldsmith

@QasimRashid

I think it's a bit more complicated than that but the EC must go.

crazyeddie

@Dave_Goldsmith @QasimRashid You sort of have to remember that while we think of the USA as one cohesive entity it very much wasn't that at its birth. If you are a state that doesn't really stack up a bunch of people you certainly wouldn't want to join a group that does and let them say how where you live is going to be now. Jefferson actually came out and said as much--of course he owned slaves. That's not who we are so much now though. I'm too affected by your votes and America is America

Joe

@QasimRashid It served another purpose: they could also disenfranchise white people who didn't own property without penalty, magnifying the power of landowners' votes. States that let all white men vote didn't get more say than states that let hardly any white men vote.

ShoebillStork916

@QasimRashid I think the shortest path is to raise the minimum citizen count for each state, to some reasonable number like 10 million, instead of the laughable 50,000 we have now. Empty states could join a compact (all of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, north and South Dakota,) to be considered as one voting bloc with a unified federal representation.
Or, maybe, a voting right act with teeth could remove representation if the state fails at voting and is under federal court supervision. Score!

kerplunk

@Shoebill @QasimRashid That's very radical, and not a short path at all. This stuff only happens with legislation. I don't see most Democrats supporting any of it, never mind the GOP. Telling 40 of 50 states that they're part of voting blocs now, and they'll like it? Probably not gonna go well.

mattg

@QasimRashid @wordshaper we need an "anti electoral college" campaign in the clear blue states to vote even tho it "doesn't matter". Make it clear just how out of whack the popular vote is if it weren't being throttled by the electoral college.

ArchaeoIain

@QasimRashid looks good from the outside, but diffficult to achieve as others have pointed out.
But how about reducing the length of time between the election and the inauguration at the same time. It would reduce the options of orange imposters to organize coups d'etat.

das-g

@QasimRashid Abolishing it might prove difficult, but it could be subverted if some more states could be convinced:
redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=

crazyeddie

@QasimRashid Which is clearly unfair to the whites of other states so of course they compromised.

Atanae

@QasimRashid Abolishing the EC requires an amendment, which is a steep ask. The way to fix it short term is to uncap the House which can be done by an Act of Congress.

By uncapping the House, you add more seats to populated States, and those new districts are likely going to be urban. So the more urban States will end up with more electors.

The Reapportionment Act is equally racist, but is easier to repeal. Let’s do that, first. That will make amending the Electoral College more attainable.

Pēteris Krišjānis

@QasimRashid also they hated idea that poor people voting proportionally would vote against slave owner interests.

Pete Keen

@QasimRashid also article 5.5 of the constitution, which disallows any change to the Senate via the amendment process.

John Alston Ii

@QasimRashid kind of reminds me of that line in the first Pirates of the Caribbean..

In a population-based election, cities would overpower the voter count of smaller towns..

" Well, that doesn't give me much incentive to fight fair."

It's weird because you flip it around and you get gerrymandering for other political roles, but no, having all the people decide the vote is wrong because W Bush and Trump lost their first popular vote.

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