Obamacans: Republicans for Obama

[redmund2905]

The purpose of having sovereign states making up the USA was to resist greater and greater centralization of power away from people and this still makes sense to some of us. See the 10th amendment. I wouldn't mind getting rid of the electoral college. Keep it simple: one person, one vote, equal across the country.

Supreme Court jurispdrudence, among other things, has deprived the 10th Amendment of the "plain meaning" that its words would suggest. The Tenth Amendment reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." WIthout getting into a longwinded analysis, I think it's safe to say that the federal government today exercises power beyond the language of the Tenth Amendment and more control over the individual states and citizens than the Founders envisioned -- or, at the very least, those Founders who were highly suspicious of concentrated federal power (like Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee).

And if we get rid of the Electoral College, we might as well get rid of the primary system as well. Instead of a state-by-state approach, which gives greater power to states that go early in framing the race, etc., there should be one national primary on a single day, so that all Republicans and all Democrats can have an equal voice in choosing their party's candidate, right? (Although by doing so we'd lose that part of each party's primary where the state delegation gives their goofy speeches when casting their votes; and Iowa would be stuck with all that extra corn.)

In any event, I believe that the concept of 50 strong states, with meaningful powers reserved to them, is an important feature of this country. It's even in our name. But it's undeniable that we're trending to a nation run out of one city. And despite all the rhetoric on both sides in this election, that's not going to change.

[Steve James]

are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Well, "people's rights" implies that they even have the right to alter or reinterpret the Constitution. They elect representatives to the federal gov't who should carry out their wishes, even if those wishes were never dreamt of by the Founders. They might never have imagined that people without property would actually vote. They clearly didn't believe that women should have the right to vote. They were wrong, because they were just people. The Declaration of Independence has the important principles; the inflexible principles. Anyway, my point is that the "people" have just as much, if not more, power than the States.

I don't believe it's valid to look at the electoral college outside of the way the Constitution (and Founders) originally counted "people" (or should I say "voters.") It wasn't just that the smaller states had smaller populations; they had an infinitely smaller number of eligible voters. Their power (State representation by electors) was eventually governed by inventive ways of counting persons. The history of voting, voter registration and poll practices in the US is very interesting. For example, there is no real "national" vote. Each State, and municipality, has the ability to do its registration, polling and electing pretty much as it chooses.

I'm not talking about "grandfather clauses" and "literacy tests" --those were put away with the Voting Rights Act --which many States did not like. Why didn't they? But, this year in NY, they expect the numbers of voters to be larger than usual. So, the Mayor was asked to provide more poll workers, etc., and to make preparations for a large turnout. Well, he refused, citing that it would cost too much money. But, imo, this is the most important job that a citizen has, and really the only chance he or she gets. Of course, the mayor supports the candidate expected to win much of the NYC vote.

Or, how about the soldiers who vote in absentia whose ballots have been disqualified just because of snafus? Such as, the gov't providing one form for them to fill out, but the State requiring that it match their forms. I don't really care whether the States have control, but I think all the States should be consistent in the way they register and count votes. I don't like the idea of a judge or a governor deciding whose votes will or won't count.

[Steve James]

I googled "history of voting in the United States" just to see what would pop up. Here's the first one.

Voting Rights

The history of voting in America is a story of ever-increasing voting rights. The rules for eligibility have changed substantially since America's founding, and continue to change today. When America was young, only white males over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. Some of the landmark changes since then:

Black Suffrage
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed following the Civil War, in the later 1860s. They outlawed slavery and extended civil rights and suffrage (voting rights) to former slaves. The LEGAL right to vote for African-Americans was established, but numerous restrictions kept many blacks from ACTUALLY voting until the 1960s

Direct election of Senators
The 17th Amendment made it so U.S. Senators were directly elected by popular vote. Prior to 1913, Senators were appointed. The President, of course, is still not elected by popular vote, but by the Electoral College. For example, in the presidential election of 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote but George Bush won the electoral college vote.

Women's Suffrage
The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. This amendment resulted from an international movement of "Suffragettes". Women still lacked the right to vote in Switzerland until the 1970s, and as of 1990 women could not vote in Kuwait.

http://www.activoteamerica.com/Home2/Hi ... oting.html

There's a fuller chronology here:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activitie ... voting.htm



18-year-old vote
The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. This occurred in 1971, amid the Vietnam War, when 18-year-olds were routinely drafted and sent to war without the right to vote.