With the country divided the way it is I have been thinking a lot about our Electoral College. What was once a rare occurrence, to have a President elected without getting the popular vote, seems to be more and more likely. Setting aside my belief that this system is outdated and disenfranchises huge portions of the country (I live in California and for the most part we are completely ignored by both campaigns. Since we are not a battleground state we are passed over for people in contested states. This makes it, in my opinion as if only a handful of the states are really deciding the election. And it is frustrating because that handful is NOT representative of the population as a whole), is there a possibility for GOP shenanigans in this system?
More after the jump
I am curious if there are any laws in place that tell the electoral voters how to cast their vote. If say colorado wins, then that sates 9 electoral voters go and cast a vote. Now I know traditionally they cast in the direction the state voted. That is if the state goes Kerry, they vote kerry. From what I have gathered it is unlikely for an Electoral voter to 'swap sides' since, as I understand it, they are chosen by the party and tend to be loyal. I have also heard that it varies state by state. In some states it is required that they vote to reflect the states choice. Others they are free to choose.
Jessie Jackson was talking about this last night on the daily show and he seemed worried about the possibility that electoral voters could in his words 'defy the will of the people." This got me thinking. I don't trust Bush one bit. It seems a common strategy for the Bush team, to have certain agencies and people 'in their pocket' as it were. What is to stop the SCEP (So Called Elected President) from bribing, or swaying these peoples votes?
Now a whole separate discussion could take place on how to change this system. Why not do it like this. If candidate X gets 20% of the states votes, then 20% of the electoral votes go to candidate X. That way everybody's vote is counted.
In closing, should we be thinking of the possibility of an electoral coup? If so, is there anything we could do to prevent it?
Anyone have information on this?
Thanks