Saturday, January 5, 2008

Nationwide Direct Election of the President with Instant Runoff Vote

EXPLANATION:
An electoral college is a body of electors who are expected to deliberate and to elect a candidate to a particular office. The United States’ Electoral College no longer performs a meaningful deliberative function in electing the President. Most U.S. Citizens no longer want it. There are several important benefits from retiring the Electoral College and electing the President and Vice-President by nationwide vote:
1. It will no longer be possible for a loser of the popular vote to win the election.
2. It will count all votes equally instead of wasting or exaggerating votes in safe States.
3. It will avoid any built-in bias for one political party over another.
4. It will reduce any risk of polling errors, which might cause an election controversy.
The instant runoff system will ensure that:
1. The winner wins by an absolute majority of all votes cast.
2. Voters can express their support for a candidate they like but whose chances of winning are low, while not wasting their vote.
Implementation will take time, so if the States ratify the Amendment within a year before the next election, implementation should be postponed.

DRAFT OF PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL DIRECT INITIATIVE:
1. Article II, Section 1 and Amendment 12 of the U.S. Constitution shall be, and hereby are, amended that: “The people of the United States shall choose their President and Vice President by nationwide direct election with instant runoff voting to ensure that they win by a majority of all votes cast. There shall be no Electoral College.”
2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the People’s nationwide Initiative.
3. Implementation of this article shall be postponed for one year if the next election follows ratification by less than one year.

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