February 24, 2010

The Fight to End the Electoral College

As the program began, Jim reported that Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed into law the "Healthy Youth Act". This act forbids any school district in Wisconsin that has a human growth and development curriculum from teaching an abstinence-only curriculum. It also allows Planned Parenthood to come into classrooms and teach comprehensive sex education.

Trent England is the Director of the Save Our States Project.

There is a nationwide movement by a San Francisco based organization known as National Popular Vote. This organization is attempting to change the electoral college system that elects our president without any change to the Constitution.

Why is that important? According to Trent, America’s founders understood that human nature is always a threat to civil society. In response, they set up a Constitution that had some checks and balances and the electoral college is one of those.

Basically, during a presidential election, each state is voting for electors. Each one of the candidates has picked individuals that they want to be their electors and if that candidate gets the most votes in that state, their electors are elected and they cast the electoral votes to decide who becomes president. The presidential candidate that wins is the one that obtains the greatest number out of 270 possible electoral votes.

The beauty of the electoral college system is that it allows small states and smaller population areas to have an equal say in the electing of our president. It also keeps any election problems, such as recounts, within the states where those problems exist. This prevents the possible need for a massive national recount that could occur under a popular vote system.

According to Trent, the movement to change this long-standing system is going on beneath the radar. He notes that National Popular Vote is very well funded; however, their funding is not being used to educate the public and inform them about what they’re doing. Instead, much of their money is being spent on “behind the scenes” lobbying of legislators.

Presently, five states have passed this as legislation: Maryland, Illinois, Hawaii, New Jersey and Washington.

More Information

To obtain more information on the "National Popular Vote", and what you can do to save the electoral college system go to:

http://www.saveourstates.com

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