I've recently learned about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

[conuly]

It's the next best thing to ditching the Electoral College all together. So, you know, if you live in one of the states that hasn't signed up (most of them) you should definitely write to the people who could put that in action.

From now through December I'll be amusing myself with the little fantasy of Electors in swing states (those without laws against it) revolting and casting their votes for Clinton. I don't imagine it will actually happen - and certainly not in any sort of numbers that matter - but it does present a charming image. Imagine it! We could get rid of Trump and probably the Electoral College in one fell swoop and quite within the law!

Maybe we'll get very lucky and Trump will do something so shockingly awful between now and the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December that it actually will happen. I can't imagine what, given that nothing has been awful enough up until now, but I can dream.

(And I don't want anybody puncturing my pretty fantasy with grim reality! I know perfectly well I'll have to wake up to the dreary truth sooner or later, I don't need your help doing it!)

(I also don't need anybody pointing out that if this did happen, one half the electorate would be furious, and they're mostly the ones against gun control. I'm well aware of that fact as well, thank you.)

Comments

[sathari]

Here from my network page

*eyes wide* I wonder if there is any merit in a petition calling on any such electors to cast their vote with the popular vote? You know, in the name of actual democracy and the will of the people and all that jazz? Seriously, this is the happiest I've felt in about twenty-four hours. If there is a way to encourage this to happen, I am SO ON IT. (And especially given the Republican ambivalence about Trump to begin with.)

[conuly]

Well... on the one hand, I always figure there's no harm in asking, because the worst they can do is say no.

On the other... I was being a bit facetious in this post. I want to be a bit realistic now and point out that this would be the very longest of the long shots. There have been rebel electors before, but it has absolutely never affected the Presidential election. You'd have to get a minimum of ten electors to change their votes to Clinton (depriving Trump of the full 270) or, preferably, a full forty-two of them. And they'd have to come from a state that both went towards Clinton and that also allows for faithless electors.

In the interest of not popping your bubble (or my own), I will say it should be possible to find the contact information for those electors who might be beneficial in this purpose, and then do all the things you normally do with legislators and judges and celebrities - send them emails, send them letters, and inveigle your like-minded contacts to do the same. Twitter, facebook, clever youtube videos, that sort of thing. Word of mouth, I mean. Petitions at this stage are likely to be even less effective than personal contact. I mean, the US is awash in petitions at all times, isn't it?

But I wasn't really expecting anybody to take me too seriously here. This is really extremely unlikely to work. I mean, if you want to contact those people, I'll gladly join in! Can't hurt! But I'm not going to really expect this to happen because it really never has before.

[sathari]

Hah, yeah, I was frankly mostly just joining the chorus of happy fantasy. As I say, it's the first time I've relaxed in... now over twenty-four hours.

But! It so happens I was looking up the number of times that a US presidential candidate has won the popular vote but not the electoral vote. It's a total of five in the nation's history. The last time was of course Bush/Gore in 2000... and then the time before that was almost one hundred years previous, when Harrison beat Cleveland. (Granted that the time before that was even shorter, but, we have this hundred-year gap and then a pair of elections that go sideways in sixteen years, under vastly improved conditions for speed and accuracy of voting count on a purely technological level.) Especially in the context of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact--- we're basically asking the electors to be at the forefront of a push that already exists. (Looking at the map on the Wikipedia page, it looks like there's a noticeable overlap between "swing states" and "states that have the compact on their legislative radar". Hmmmm.)

(Also, the last two are under similar circumstances: a Democrat following in the footsteps of a two-term Democrat gets the popular vote but loses to the Republican. That is another whole layer of sideeye.)

But, yeah, I might just have to signal-boost this as well as writing my own letters. And, hell, this election has been full of "never really has before", let's go one more.

Also, would you mind if I linked this post and our discussion in a signal-boost, because between the two of us there's some good context here?

[conuly]

Oh, good, because I was worried I'd completely misled you and was going to have to very gently disillusion you and I barely even know you.

Although you know what I found out while looking for advice? Apparently, in the last election, Trump thought Romney was going to win the popular vote and he whined that Obama winning on the electoral was "not democracy", and now it's crickets. So you know what? FUCK HIM. Fuck him, and fuck his hair, and fuck his Metrocard, and fuck his reality show, and fuck his taxes, and fuck the damn horse he rode in on. I don't care if this is the stupidest, most futile thing I ever do, I'm going to harass all the legislators and all the electors from now until doomsday, or at least December. Because fuck him, that's why.

Also, as always, I'm late to the party, somebody else had the same idea.

http://choncegiving.tumblr.com/post/152963872857/notmypresident

[sathari]

Linked away over at my journal, and, hah, no, no need to disillusion me, gently or otherwise! My beady little eyes just got gleaming at anything that could possibly be done even if it's just waving a flag in a hurricane--- it's better than not doing anything. It's better than acting like it's okay that we have twice now seen this THING where we have a successful two-term Democratic President and then the next Democratic candidate up WINS THE POPULAR VOTE but the fucking electoral college nullifies the voices of a majority of Americans--- whether it's because we live in a community where we're NOT the majority and our votes are cancelled out entirely, or because we move to the concentrated areas where we ARE the majority and then we have too few of those, despite their overall population density, to hold the electoral college. No, it's not okay. (Sorry. I know that I am probably preaching to the choir here in at least some of this. Just had to get that off my chest.)

And what's more, if we all keep talking, keep our voices going anywhere that we can, that keeps the pressure on. That keeps this whole mess from looking like it's OKAY. IT'S NOT OKAY.

[conuly]

Also, yes, go ahead, link to everything. Because fuck that asshole. What a fucking loser.