a maybe not so crazy idea

[plural]

Update: Please link to http://www.wolfenet.com/~plural - it is our temporary webhome a domain has been registered and we are waiting for DNS servers to catch up - Thanks and sorry about the bold

If Bush takes Florida that will give him enough
Electoral votes (271) to become president
but he will have lost the popular vote

If Gore takes Oregon
that will put him at 267 Electoral votes
just three shy of the 270 needed to win

now technically
the electoral college is supposed
to vote in accordance with the results
of the state balloting

and all but two states have a law
which establishes a winner take all
in respect to the electoral vote
which means whomever wins
the popular vote
for that state gets all of the votes

Now the electoral college
is not required to cast their votes this way
there have been several cases in the past
where a member of the electoral college
has voted contrary to the public vote

In most states
this is perfectly legal
in Washington state
it is a misdemeanor
which carries a $1000 dollar fine

In which case
I think we should all buck up
and agree to pay any related legal costs
for Electors who vote contrary to their state
and in accordance with the popular vote.

So all we have to do
is between now and December 18th
is to convince 4 members of the electoral college
to follow the Popular vote on the national level
instead of their particular states vote

If you live in a State
that went for Bush
go to this link

Electoral College Homepage

Under the first subheading "Electoral Results"
The last listing is "Electoral Votes, by State, listing individual electors:"
with links to the years 1992 and 1996

by Federal law
every state must prepare and file seven "Certificates of Ascertainment"
listing each of the Electors for that state
as soon as election results are finalized for that state

very shortly we should see a link for 2000 appear at the end of that line
which will list by state the names of all the electors
contact your electors
and tell them to support the popular vote
and cast their vote for Gore/Lieberman

If you don't live in a state that went for Bush
call electors from other states
once the list has been posted
I will attempt to gather contact information
for the 538 electors starting with the states that went for Bush
and will post it here

Some of you may want Bush to win
other may just think I am crazy
but I think of it this way

It is only a matter of changing the minds
of four people

people like you or I
and if you assume they follow the national demographic
half of them, when they cast their ballots
voted for Gore

(correction - each party selects a slate of electors equal to the total number of representatives which that state has in both houses of congress, so if the republicans won a state, then all of the republican electors were elected, so we need to convince four republicans to see things our way, a slight increase in difficulty but again it is only 4 people)

And if we succeed
we can say
we altered the course of history
for the most powerful nation on earth

How is that for something to tell your grand kids?

If you agree with my idea
link to it
spread the word
lets start a popular uprising
and make it happen

If you like this idea you can read more of my thoughts on this matter Here

remember
all we have to do
is convince
four people


Update: Please link to http://www.wolfenet.com/~plural - it is our temporary webhome a domain has been registered and we are waiting for DNS servers to catch up - Thanks and sorry about the bold

Comments

Re: just a suggestion...

[plural.livejournal.com]

Challenging my grammer is not going to get a rise out of me, this idea and the movement which people have spawned around it, is to important to reduce to flaming.

However when dealing with large amounts of on screen text, I find that breaking them up much like one would speak, into logical and concise words, rather than a seemingly endless block of text.

and lastly, the site is in alpha mode, we hope to have beta soon. Unfortunatly time is not a luxury we have, so what I am doing is trying to get as much information out to as many people as I can and will worry about making it look shiny along the way.

Re: just a suggestion...

[submission.livejournal.com]

Al Gore himself said a few days ago that in the unlikely event (at the time he said it) that a candidate lose the popular vote yet win in the electoral college, that he supports the Constitution (which states that even with a popular vote loss a candidate can win the presidency if he wins in the electoral college). Gore said himself he supports this. SO you'd undermine the very person you'd be helping?

Re: just a suggestion...

[plural.livejournal.com]

The Constitution says that whoever wins the electoral votes becomes the president elect.

This is not in anyway at conflict with what we are doing here

It is implicit in the design of the constitution that the people would elect electors who would actually make the decision, however, no where is it said, implied or otherwise, that the electors are bound to vote a particular way.

Our news media, incorrectly lists the number of Electoral Votes "Won" by each Candidate. when in fact it is the Party who won those electors. When you voted, you did not cast a vote, for George Bush or Al Gore, you voted for a slate of electors, who were nominated by the head of your states political party.

The electoral college is not in anyway instructed on how to vote, at least not in the constitution, the idea is that you elect similarly minded, well informed and intelligent people who cast their vote in according to their conscience. In only twenty states, are there rules on the books, which require the electors to vote for their parties candidate.

What we are doing, is exercising our constitutional rights, to lobby our elected representatives, in an effort to get them to see our point of view.

In no way is it a breach of, nor a subversion of the constitution.

Re: just a suggestion...

[submission.livejournal.com]

I don't see why if one candidate wins by a simple majority, that ALL of the electoral votes go to him. This isn't right, becaues it's obvious not all of the state voted for that one candidate. What they should do is break up the electoral college by congressional district. Whoever wins that congressional district gets that representative's vote. so instead of Gore or Bush getting all 25 electoral votes in Florida, for example, maybe 12 go to Gore and 11 go to Bush. Whoever wins the majority of the districts wins the Senate's votes, so it would be 14 Gore 11 Bush or whatever. If we did this nationwide it would give a much more accurate representation as to who the people really voted for.