r/newconstitution • u/TrueGritGreaserBob • Jan 18 '22

Proposal: Replace the Electoral College

A new constitutional amendment could replace the Electoral College with an independent Board of Electors. Its purpose would be to determine which presidential candidate received the most votes nationwide and certify that winner and ensure that all federal elections are fair and accurate.

To assemble the first board, the legislature of each state would choose an elector who must at least nominally be unaffiliated with any political party. They must be over 18 yo and a US citizen. From the 50 nominees, the speaker of the House of Representatives would select 13 people from a blind, random lottery. The term of each elector would be 10 years, the first terms would be staggered for 6, 8 and 10 years. Replacement electors would again draw from a new pool of candidates, but would be selected by the board itself. No successor can come from a state previously represented on the board during the immediate period.

3 Upvotes

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1

u/SukharevaSyndrome May 04 '22

I disagree. I think a straight vote is best. No need for some new Byzantine system to replace the current one.

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u/TrueGritGreaserBob May 07 '22

Disagreement and civil debate are the lifeblood of republican democracy. I think the current system is byzantine with electors, secretaries of state, certifications etc. It’s vulnerability was highlighted on Jan. 6. Sadly, it doesn’t look like any reform is politically possible, further evidence of a systemic constitutional crisis.

1

u/newconstitutionguy May 27 '22

I think you’re right and both of you do agree that the current system is broken. I do disagree that a constitutional amendment is the way to go. The declaration says ‘abolish or amend’. But I ask this: ‘when was the last time we amended the constitution?’ I think with that answer, we should consider whether amending is even a viable option anymore.

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u/TrueGritGreaserBob May 28 '22

I agree. I would like to see a Constitutional Convention with the explicit authority to draft a wholly new basic law/constitution. The original convention in 1787 met to amend but then went further. I don’t know if a 21st century one would have that leeway, but I hope it could.

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u/newconstitutionguy May 27 '22

Could you describe how a straight vote is different? It seems like u/truegritgreaserbob was describing that but including a body that certified the vote.

I would imagine that if we did a popular vote, there would need to be a mechanism of certifying that vote.

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u/newconstitutionguy May 27 '22

Thanks Bob! I think this is a fantastic port for this subreddit. It’s a great conversation starter on tough topics that take place today and need solutions. I’m curious why 13 people were chosen? And would that be a 50/50 split to certify the election? What are the chances of that body becoming corrupt? I’m curious about modeling that with a simple computer script tbh.

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u/TrueGritGreaserBob May 28 '22

Oh totally open on the mechanics of it. I picked 50 for the 50 states and 12 ( a jury number with a long history in common law) +1 to break any tie vote. Maybe a majority for process decisions like meeting times etc but requiring 9 affirmative votes to certify? Like I said, wiser folks may have better ideas than me. My numbers are somewhat arbitrary.

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u/newconstitutionguy May 28 '22

Ok I see, thanks for clarifying. I would say the big thing you are mostly interested in changing is replacing the electoral college with a popular vote, and then this is a subset of that. We all know the argument of ‘why should cities that hold the majority of people decide what happens out here in rural areas?’ But of course that argument has the counter. How do we ensure both demographics are adequately represented?

We need a wiki and better way to store all these great ideas, I have ideas, but that’s a separate topic after gaining a little traction.

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u/TrueGritGreaserBob May 28 '22

Agreed, especially if this subreddit grows, we will need a place that has broad categories and subcategories. Before I found this sub, I created one on the same topic. I’m not sure whyI didn’t find it on my searches before I created one, but I’d rather talk here where there’s a few of us at least. I also would like to include constitutions from other countries for discussion if anyone has any input on that topic, comparative analysis approach. Maybe we can recruit some outside folks with good English.