Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Electoral College reform, 50 states with equal population...

http://fakeisthenewreal.org/reform/



The electoral college is a time-honored, logical system for picking the chief executive of the United States. However, the American body politic has also grown accustomed to paying close attention to the popular vote. This is only rarely a problem, since the electoral college and the popular vote have only disagreed three times in 200 years. However, it's obvious that reforms are needed.

The fundamental problem of the electoral college is that the states of the United States are too disparate in size and influence. The largest state is 66 times as populous as the smallest and has 18 times as many electoral votes. This increases the chance for Electoral College results that don't match the popular vote. To remedy this issue, the Electoral Reform Map redivides the fifty United States into 50 states of equal population. The 2010 Census records a population of 308,745,538 for the United States, which this map divides into 50 states, each with a population of about 6,175,000.1


Advantages of this proposal

Preserves the historic structure and function of the Electoral College.
Ends the over-representation of small states and under-representation of large states in presidential voting and in the US Senate by eliminating small and large states.
Political boundaries more closely follow economic patterns, since many states are more centered on one or two metro areas.
Ends varying representation in the House. Currently, the population of House districts ranges from 528,000 to 924,000. After this reform, every House seat would represent districts of the same size. (Since the current size of the House isn't divisible by 50, the numbers of seats should be increased to 450 or 500.)
States could be redistricted after each census - just like House seats are distributed now.


Disadvantages

Some county names are duplicated in new states.
Some local governments would experience a shift in state laws and procedures.


Methodology

The map began with an algorithm that grouped counties based on proximity, urban area, and commuting patterns. The algorithm was seeded with the fifty largest cities. After that, manual changes took into account compact shapes, equal populations, metro areas divided by state lines, and drainage basins. In certain areas, divisions are based on census tract lines.

The District of Columbia is included into the state of Washington, with the Mall, major monuments and Federal buildings set off as the seat of the federal government.

The capitals of the states are existing states capitals where possible, otherwise large or central cities have been chosen. The suggested names of the new states are taken mainly from geographical features:

mountain ranges or peaks, or caves – Adirondack, Allegheny, Blue Ridge, Chinati, Mammoth, Mesabi, Ozark, Pocono, Rainier, Shasta, Shenandoah and Shiprock
rivers – Atchafalaya, Menominee, Maumee, Nodaway, Sangamon, Scioto, Susquehanna, Trinity and Willimantic
historical or ecological regions – Big Thicket, Firelands and Tidewater
bays, capes, lakes and aquifers – Casco, Tampa Bay, Canaveral, Mendocino, Ogallala, Salt Lake and Throgs Neck
songs – Gary, Muskogee and Temecula
cities – Atlanta, Chicago, Columbia, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington
plants – Tule and Yerba Buena
people – King and Orange

The words used for names for the name are drawn from many languages, including many American Indian languages. While some etymologies are unclear, the root languages for the state names include Abenaki (Casco), Algonquian (Nodaway, Pocono, Willimantic), Apache (Chinati), Calusa (Tampa), Choctaw (Atchafalaya), English, French (Detroit, Ozark, Rainier), Greek (Philadelphia), Iroquoian (Shenandoah), Lakota (Ogallala), Latin (Columbia), Luiseño (Temecula), Mayaimi (Miami), Mamaceqtaw (Menominee), Miami-Illinois (Chicago), Mohawk (Adirondack), Muscogee (Muskogee), Nahuatl (Tule), Odawa (Maumee), Ojibwe (Mesabi), Potawatomi (Sangamon), Susquehannock (Susquehanna) and Wyandot (Scioto).

Keep in mind that this is an art project, not a serious proposal, so take it easy with the emails about the sacred soil of Texas. That said, if you have any questions, drop me a line.

It'd be a long drive across Shiprock!

Sycamore

2 Senators for every big city.

What could go wrong with that?

Elect a conservative, put three or four solid conservatives on the SCOTUS, overturn Roe v. Wade and a couple other BS cases and the problem solves itself - because the PRK, OR, WA secede to the West and ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, and RI (along with NYC) secede to the East.

Problems solved.

Repeal the 18th Admendment to return balance to the relationship between the States and the Federal Government.

What??

You might lose VA as well.

Sycamore

Not a chance. MAYBE the Beltway area if DC and MD went, but otherwise not a chance. Hell, I doubt NJ would even go. Maryland would throw a fit, but they'd stay. Only the furthest left states would leave, and that'd be a Godsend.

Clearly the wrong Amendment, as the 18th was repealed already by the 21st.

What about DC? Problem not solved...

What's the down side to the most votes wins?

The 19th is the only one that needs to go.

Too simple and fair?

I would have a difficult time believing any states would leave the republic for one very important reason. Social Security. Right now, we have almost 25% of the population relying on SS. That position will be moot when SS is no longer viable. At that point I would believe that this country could be separated into maybe three different countries. I hope not but there are just too many differences between us and I only see it getting worse.

Lots of pissed off folks that get shuttled into a state with more expensive tax structures and disparities in services and benefits. A simple popular vote would work for me.

You really have to ask? Obama? Clinton? The founders called it "mob rule".

Hell No.

Popular vote goes against everything the founders did. We are a nation of states. States send representatives to Congress and states send delegates to the electoral college to do the bidding of their respective states.

The OP's map does nothing but weaken the small states and transfer that power to the more populated states.

We as a nation get subjected to the tyranny of the majority - something founders did not want. The built a model of representational democracy, not direct democracy.

If you believe at all in the 10th amendment, then popular vote should be opposed with every fiber of your being.

This.

So you be in favor of all states having equal electoral votes? Wyoming and Vermont get the same as California, and Texas. I argue the current system largely ignores the small states. Follow the money to the battle ground states such as Ohio (18), and Florida (29)with it's large electoral votes. Anyone think in the general election the presidential candidates have restless nights wondering if they are going to win Wyoming (3)or Vermont (3)? They irrelevant and that is not power. In a tight race if was a popular vote different story.