obie
08 Sep 2004, 02:59 PM
The Republican mayor of South Charleston, WV has told local press that if Bush wins West Virginia, he as a Constitutionally-appointed elector may cast his electoral vote for Kerry (http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2004090817/). And if he does, there's nothing that anyone can do about it. It's not even subject to Supreme Court challenge because the Electoral College is by definition constitutional.
Sure this has happened before on a small scale when it didn't matter, but how screwy is this? Who wants to bet that both parties right now are combing state Constitutions to see how electors are chosen? I know that the Electoral College isn't going anywhere because scrapping it would take the votes of 38 state legislatures even though it switches voting power to only about 10 major states, but if this is what we're coming to, can't we at least retool it so that we guarantee the person who gets elected is really the person who becomes President?
Sure this has happened before on a small scale when it didn't matter, but how screwy is this? Who wants to bet that both parties right now are combing state Constitutions to see how electors are chosen? I know that the Electoral College isn't going anywhere because scrapping it would take the votes of 38 state legislatures even though it switches voting power to only about 10 major states, but if this is what we're coming to, can't we at least retool it so that we guarantee the person who gets elected is really the person who becomes President?