two birds with one stone. the popular vote recall.

[unblock]

problem #1: a widely detested president is virtually guaranteed to remain in office for a full four years even while a clear majority of the country opposes him, often strongly so.

problem #2: the electoral college. its defects have been discussed at great length on du and elsewhere for ages.


one possible improvement: a constitutional amendment to add a popular vote recall of the president of the united states.

there are many details, such as what would trigger a recall election, and who would it be a "recall or not" vote or would a specific candidate be running against them, if removed would the veep take over or the previously second place candidate, etc. i'll leave those questions open for discussion.


my suggestion though is that a popular vote recall amendment is something that could conceivably get passed (not in time to have any effect on donnie, though) because even right-wingers and small states can like the idea of being able to kick out a democrat mid-term.

the electoral college could remain for the regularly scheduled elections. of course i'd like to see it go away, but in practice that is not something that will happen anytime soon though the normal process as small states won't sign on to that. but they *may* sign on to a popular vote recall -- they may like the recall idea enough to not care so much about wanting the electoral college involved in those elections as well.


thoughts?

[dlk]

1. We Definitely Need Legislative Option to Avoid Minority Vote Winners

The fact that someone has won the presidency more than once with a minority of the popular vote undermines our democracy. A recall option could work. I also like the idea brought up by Robert Reich of an annulment, especially when excessive cheating is revealed. One thing is certain, the current laws are seriously insufficient.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Getting rid of the Electoral College must be the first priority.

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5. ideally, sure. but i don't see it happening any time soon.

the way our constitution is set up, it takes a good number of small states to sign on to any amendment, and they're not likely to give up a system that gives them disproportionate influence. the popular vote compact has a better shot, as it only requires a majority of electoral votes, but even that seems a long shot.

i think a popular vote recall would have a better chance of passing.

unfortunately, i think eliminating the electoral college problem is fairly hopeless, at least via the amendment process. a popular vote recall would at least reduce the effect of the electoral college because presidents would have to strive to keep a majority happy in order to remain in office.

[zipplewrath]

3. Nope

This isn't a parliamentary system. Recalls are extremely disruptive. I can guarantee you Obama would have suffered a recall driven by the Tea Party folks. It's why impeachments are so difficult, it's not suppose to be a capricious action to remove a president. People need to take elections very seriously. There are no "do overs".

[unblock]

4. well that goes to what triggers a recall.

i'm not suggesting that recalls votes automatically happen every november or any time three people put together a petition.

there can be some hurdles to making a recall happen so that it can be invoked only when reasonably appropriate. the question is what exactly would trigger a recall. it can still be made to be difficult.

i think we are living through the obvious problem of not having any recall provision at all.