Talk Elections

Presidential Elections - Analysis and Discussion => Presidential Election Process => Topic started by: defe07 on April 16, 2008, 02:01:46 AM



Title: A logical electoral reform proposal with the Congressional District Method
Post by: defe07 on April 16, 2008, 02:01:46 AM
I think I finally got a good idea brewing here. I admit many of my proposals have just been complicated to understand but here's a decent one.

If Electors are able to cast 2 separate Electoral Votes (1 for President and 1 for VP) and we choose the Electors, why don't we get Electoral Votes to cast too? Someone on www.ballot-access.org proposed a similar idea.

My idea would be for voters to vote for 3 Electors but with each voter able to have 6 votes (the 2 Electoral Votes that a Congressional District Elector cast plus the 4 Electoral Votes that an At-large Elector cast). You see, the Electors are both Presidential and Vice-Presidential Electors. We choose 538 Electors not 1,076 Electors, but we could choose how the 1,076 Electoral Votes, cast for both President and Vice-President, go.

In a Congressional District, voters get 2 votes, 1 for each Electoral Vote the Elector casts. The Electors are allocated proportionally. If the winning party gets 51% or more of the Congressional District vote, it gets all 2 Electoral Votes. Otherwise, they're allocated according to each ticket's % of the vote in the Congressional District. However, the Elector from the winning ticket would vote for the candidate of the Elector that got the 2nd Electoral Vote.

Statewide, voters get 4 votes, 1 for each Electoral Vote the Elector casts. The Electors are allocated proportionally. If the winning party gets 51% or more of the statewide vote, it gets all 4 Electoral Votes. Otherwise, they're allocated according to each ticket's % of the vote statewide. However, the Electors from the top 2 tickets would vote for the candidates of the Electors that got the 3rd and 4th Electoral Votes.

To avoid confusion here, I'll explain it all. Congressional Districts have 1 Elector but that Elector gets to vote twice and is both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elector. States have  2 at-large Electors but those Electors get to vote twice and they're both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Electors.

Also, each party would take 2 candidates to the general election. However, since the main office is the Presidency, there wouldn't be any VP picks allowed and the Vice-Presidency would be the consolation prize in case of not getting the Presidency. 

I think the beauty of this idea is that we'd have a more direct say of choosing our President and Vice-President, even though this isn't like a nationwide Presidential election. :)


Title: Re: A logical electoral reform proposal with the Congressional District Method
Post by: minionofmidas on April 16, 2008, 08:43:23 AM
Contradiction in terms in the thread title.

That doesn't mean there may not be viable such proposals... but nothing about the EC can ever be logical.


Title: Re: A logical electoral reform proposal with the Congressional District Method
Post by: defe07 on April 19, 2008, 03:59:20 PM
Something tells me that I should've put the word viable than logical :P Anyways, let me clear up a few things. What I propose is that the voter votes for who should be President and VP and votes for their preferences there (say in '92 you wanted Perot for Pres and Clinton for VP, for example), then if the Perot elector won and casts an Electoral Vote for Perot as President, when casting an Electoral Vote for VP, that same elector would vote for Clinton as VP. I just thought I'd clear that up a bit :)