FYI - Constitution doesn't require popular election to choose President.

[MikeG]

If the state legislature decides to appoint electors, they can, without a popular vote, but they would have to change law.

[wyethwire]

1. that's true

South Carolina appointed their electors until after the Civil War.

Direct election of electors (in most states) started with Jackson.

[Seeking Serenity]

2. That's true, you know.

I remember DH telling me that his high exaulted jerkness Scalia was right in Bush v. Gore when he wrote that Americans do not have a right to vote for president.

I about blew my stack. Then he whipped out his pocket Constitution (provided by the Cato Institute) and defied me to find where the right to cast a vote for president was in there.

:mad:

(on edit_ DH said that the franchise can be given by the state legislatures, and taken back again.

:scared:

[benburch]

3. If Bush v Gore had gone for Gore

the Florida Legislature was planning to slate pro-Bush electors. It was a rig job from the word "Go".

[Seeking Serenity]

4. I don't know that they could have done that

DH says that once the franchise is given, they can't take it away midstream, so to speak. Any changes would have had to have been effective for the next election cycle.

But that's just his analysis.

[jobycom]

6. I think there was something in Florida law

that said the legislature chose if there was a problem with the election. They had their bases covered. Those who think Gore should have kept fighting weren't paying attention. It was a done deal the morning they opened the polls.

[Seeking Serenity]

7. I'll take your word for that

I'm not from there.

[benburch]

8. That was my understanding too.

So this means that they need to create a problem with THIS election too.

[jobycom]

5. Me and Jesse Jackson Jr have been trying to change that

But so far it is true.

Okay, to be fair, JJJr has a lot better chance of succeeding. He had been pushing a Right to Vote amendment to require states to choose electors by popular vote. So far, Congress is more interested in voting on amendments discriminating against gays, I guesss. We've become a country club country, more interested in who we keep out than who we include.