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Feinstein wants end to Electoral College
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday that when Congress returns in January, she will propose a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a one-person, one-vote one-party system for electing the nation's president and vice president.
| "We don't think Wyoming should have any influence in the electoral process. Nobody we know lives there!" |
In introducing the amendment, the Democrat from San Francisco is joining Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who last month introduced a similar proposal in the House, which she said she would reintroduce in the 109th Congress that convenes on Jan. 3. The two California lawmakers say the current system makes most Americans election bystanders, pointing toward the recent campaign in which President Bush and his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, focused almost all their time, energy and campaign funds on a handful of undecided states in search of their electoral votes.
| Instead of the civilized East and Left coasts. |
"The Electoral College is an anachronism, and the time has come to bring our democracy into the 21st century," Feinstein said in a statement. "During the founding years of the republic, the Electoral College may have been a suitable system, but today it is flawed and amounts to national elections being decided in several battleground states.''
| "Those damm people in fly-over country with their outdated values keep denying us our permanent grip on power!" |
| But explain how it's flawed, Diane. Why shouldn't Wyoming have as much of a voice in the election as it has in Congress? Or were you thinking of yanking its representatives and giving them to Marin County? |
Despite some popular appeal, the proposal faces a difficult road to passage. It takes a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress followed by ratification by 38 states for a constitutional amendment to become law. | Including those pesky Red states |
Posted by: Steve 2004-12-23 |
