Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Nothing Is Over Until We Decide It Is!

John Conyers (D-MI), the 26-term congressman representing Congressional District 13 (metropolitan Detroit), penned an editorial in USA Today calling for an amendment to the Constitution which would do away with the Electoral College.
“…some Electoral College defenders argue that direct elections for president could lead to messy nationwide vote recounts. Our experience in Florida in 2000, and Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this year, have taught us that statewide recounts under differing and confusing rules bring neither clarity nor finality to our electoral process. By contrast, a national popular vote is historically far more likely to establish a clear winner, avoiding the necessity of recounts altogether.”
When Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein requested recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Conyers’ district saw 238 precincts tabulated more Election Day votes than people who were counted as checking in to vote.  The affected precincts represent 37% of the city’s 662 precincts.  The discrepancy became national news.
Article 2 of the US Constitution sets up the Electoral College. It assigns votes to states by the size of their congressional delegation: Each state gets two electors—just as they get two senators—in addition to those apportioned by population. The result weights the outcome in such a way that electoral votes cast by the most populous states are worth a fraction of those cast by smallest states:  One Wyoming electoral college vote represents 143,000 people; the ratio is 1:500,000 for California.

California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas have the most electoral votes.  Sixteen states have between 3 and 5.  Traditionally blue states like Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Virginia and Wisconsin have between 10 and 15 electoral votes.

That’s the difference between “spectator” states and “battleground” states.

Before he appeared on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on Friday night liberal film maker Michael Moore tweeted: 
The tweet linked to a Facebook post where the blob of lard, wrapped in blubber and slathered in grease expressed his conviction that enough so-called “faithless electors” would somehow deny Trump the White House.
“Get over it and pull yourself together. The tanks are 20 miles outside of Paris! Throw everything you got at this and do not relent. You’re in the friggin’ majority! Let’s act like it. Make your voice heard on social media and in front of your state capitol. An authoritarian regime is about to take hold in DC, and they are going to run roughshod over you, me and all that is good. Get over your election depression and fight like you’ve never fought before. Non-violently. With conviction. There are more of us than there are of them. Only 23% of all registered adult American voters showed up and voted for Trump. Come on! It’s not over til it’s over.”
Talk about mentally challenged.  That line about “tanks are 20 miles outside of Paris” doesn’t help his point.  It’s tantamount to willful ignorance. The last time tanks were 20 miles outside of Paris was on Bastille Day with its traditional military parade along the Champs-Elysées on July 14, 2016.

On Monday, December 19th the Electoral College finally put the 2016 election out of its misery—ironically exactly 18 years to the day after Hillary’s husband was impeached 
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