Freaking Brilliant Idea!

[noxagol]

Ok, so, we don't actually vote for president, 2000 taught us that. The popular vote does not matter. What matters is the Electoral College, and they don't have to vote for who the people vote for. So.....

WE MUST BECOME THE MAJORITY OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE IN EACH STATE!

If we did this, the campaign wouldn't even matter, we could just make Ron Paul president and the people have no say. Guess what, this can also be used AGAINST US!

So, find out how to get on the electoral college in your state and do it! Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of Representatives and Senators added together. These are the TRUE deciders of the president, not we the people.

 

[born2drv]

Can you break it down a little more simpler then that? How exactly do we become part of the electoral college? do we become "electors"? and how exactly does that work?

i searched and found this for california, but i'm still confused

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How does California selects its electors?

On or before October 1 of the presidential election year, each party's nominee must file a list containing the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the 55 electors pledges to him/her. Each party determines its own method for selecting electors.

In the Democratic Party, each congressional nominee and each US Senate nominee (determined by the last two elections) designates one elector.

In the Republican Party, the nominees for governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, controller, attorney general, secretary of state, United States Senators (again, going back two elections) the Senate and Assembly GOP leaders, all elected officers of the GOP state central committee, the national committeeman and committeewoman, the president of the GOP county central committee chairmen's organization and the chair or president of each GOP volunteer organization officially recognized by the state central committee act as electors.

No incumbent Senators, congressional representatives or persons holding an office of trust or profit of the United States can serve as electors.

American Independent electors are selected at the party's nominating convention, as are those of the Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, and Peace & Freedom parties, who further specify a 50/50 ratio of men and women.
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So how does one become an elector exactly??? is it a long, difficult process? and if it was that easy, why doesn't everyone become an elector?

and if everyone wanted our votes to go to say rudy.... and we gave them all to paul instead, wouldn't that cause some major riot or something?

 

[ctb619]

pipe dream

 

[noxagol]

How does California selects its electors?

On or before October 1 of the presidential election year, each party's nominee must file a list containing the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the 55 electors pledges to him/her. Each party determines its own method for selecting electors.

In the Democratic Party, each congressional nominee and each US Senate nominee (determined by the last two elections) designates one elector.

In the Republican Party, the nominees for governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, controller, attorney general, secretary of state, United States Senators (again, going back two elections) the Senate and Assembly GOP leaders, all elected officers of the GOP state central committee, the national committeeman and committeewoman, the president of the GOP county central committee chairmen's organization and the chair or president of each GOP volunteer organization officially recognized by the state central committee act as electors.

No incumbent Senators, congressional representatives or persons holding an office of trust or profit of the United States can serve as electors.

American Independent electors are selected at the party's nominating convention, as are those of the Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, and Peace & Freedom parties, who further specify a 50/50 ratio of men and women.

Well it sounds like they are all picked by people who were nominated to state government designate who they are, I think.

So how does one become an elector exactly??? is it a long, difficult process? and if it was that easy, why doesn't everyone become an elector?

Well for one, very few people realize that their vote for president doesn't actually mean anything, so they don't try for it and people just go for it to do it.

It also varies from state to state, so people are going to have to look this up themselves.

and if everyone wanted our votes to go to say rudy.... and we gave them all to paul instead, wouldn't that cause some major riot or something?

Probably, but the law will prevail, this is in the freaking Constitution.

All we need for this to work is to get 535/2+1 Ron Paul supporters to become members of the electoral college.

 

[noxagol]

pipe dream

That's what Ron Paul thought when he started his run for president.....

Now look at where he is based on that pipe dream...

 

[Syren123]

pipe dream

I guess that depends on what's in your pipe.

 

[bc2208]

Guys, this would be worse than tampering with voting machines. Aren't we fighting for fairness in elections?

 

[ctb619]

That's what Ron Paul thought when he started his run for president.....

Now look at where he is based on that pipe dream...

Regardless of the chances of success for this electoral college scheme (slim to none), even if it could be pulled off, in my estimation it would be completely unethical for an elector to disregard the votes of the people and vote for his/her favorite candidate instead.

 

[noxagol]

Regardless of the chances of success for this electoral college scheme (slim to none), even if it could be pulled off, in my estimation it would be completely unethical for an elector to disregard the votes of the people and vote for his/her favorite candidate instead.

No, it is their OBLIGATION UNDER THE CONSTITUTION to disregard them if deemed inappropriate for the country. People did not even vote for president in the beginning, it was all handled by the electoral college. This is its function, doing your job is not unethical. The system has followed the premise that the popular vote does, wrongly, determine the electoral college.

 

[SewrRatt]

You don't understand the system. A state's popular vote selects a block of electors, so if the state voted for Hillary the only electors from that state voting in the Electoral College would be electors pledged to vote for Hillary handpicked by the Democratic Party. The only way to send friendly electors to the Electoral College is to win the popular vote in your state. Capiche?

 

[Larofeticus]

That would be the final nail in the coffin of the electoral college.

Thats pretty much the only piece of the consititution that allows federalism in the appointment of federal positions. Senators used to be appointed by state legislatures instead of by popular vote. We wouldn't have nearly as much federal domination of government if that were still the case.

 

[ctb619]

No, it is their OBLIGATION UNDER THE CONSTITUTION to disregard them if deemed inappropriate for the country. People did not even vote for president in the beginning, it was all handled by the electoral college. This is its function, doing your job is not unethical. The system has followed the premise that the popular vote does, wrongly, determine the electoral college.

OK, reverse the scenario and tell me if you'd be fine with the outcome.

 

[foofighter20x]

All we need for this to work is to get 535/2+1 Ron Paul supporters to become members of the electoral college.

That'd be (538/2)+1, or 270.

You forgot the three extra votes for DC.

Edit: the other problem is that it is typically the State's Party that nominates the electors, and they are only going to nominate the party faithful, not the party newcomers... This may be a problem.

 

[noxagol]

OK, reverse the scenario and tell me if you'd be fine with the outcome.

I wouldn't be fine for sure, however, I have no choice in the matter. I think the electoral college is retarded personally, especially because many many people are not aware of how the system really works.

 

[SwordOfShannarah]

OK, reverse the scenario and tell me if you'd be fine with the outcome.

Kind of seems to me like the scenario has already been reversed.

 

[noxagol]

That'd be (538/2)+1, or 270.

You forgot the three extra votes for DC.

Edit: the other problem is that it is typically the State's Party that nominates the electors, and they are only going to nominate the party faithful, not the party newcomers... This may be a problem.

Actually, 535/2+1 is valid, because division comes before addition, but I did forget the three from DC.

 

[ctb619]

Kind of seems to me like the scenario has already been reversed.

What I mean is, imagine if Ron Paul won a majority of the votes as a third party candidate and some Giuliani goons were the electors and decided to disregard the will of the voters and cast their votes for Giuliani anyway.

 

[SewrRatt]

What I mean is, imagine if Ron Paul won a majority of the votes as a third party candidate and some Giuliani goons were the electors and decided to disregard the will of the voters and cast their votes for Giuliani anyway.

I'll try to explain this again. In 48 states, each party nominates its own slate of Electors. The popular vote in the state is to elect the slate of Electors nominated by a candidate's party and pledged to vote for that party's presidential candidate. So, if a state by popular vote selects Hillary Clinton, the Electors nominated by the Democratic Party are elected to the Electoral College. These Electors are picked by the Democratic Party and are pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton. You are not going to convince these people to vote for the other party, especially if it means voting for Ron Paul. This can not be turned to our advantage.

Likewise, if Ron Paul wins the popular vote in most states, the Republican Party's nominated Electors are elected. There actually is a chance the GOP's electors would vote for Hillary over Ron, but if those are the people being chosen there's nothing a Ron Paul supporter can do about it. Thus, there's no way we can hijack the Electoral College to vote for Ron Paul for states in which we lose the popular vote.

We need to quit worrying about this, anyway. Ron has to be nominated before any of this is even relevant. First things first.

 

[Jennifer Reynolds]

///

 

[trispear]

You are asking for riots in the slim chance it came true, and in the meantime, you are making the rest of us look like jerks by trying to game the system.

Yes, the electoral college was designed to work one way, but in reality since it's inception it always worked with popular vote. (There was one case where the vice-president didn't match the vote...)

Also, they only use the most trustworthy people in the electoral college - people sure to vote for the candidate they have been selected for - in other words, not newcomers nor people who were for another candidate other than the primary choice months before.

If the electoral college could have flip-flopped easily, you would have seen at least a few people changing their votes in the closely contested races.