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OT: American Politics

Tryamw said:
The Constitution.. the States handle the Elections...

Article I, Section 4, Clause 1:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
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This is for the legislative branch - Congress.
 
MindzEye said:
Yes. The votes have to be counted in accordance with state law. I've explained this already and why it's a problem for online voting. The current US election system is a frankenstein of state level election laws functioning under a federal umbrella that tries to keep it from being too much of a shit show but has limited power to actually do anything because as noted, the right to set their own election laws (aka, the right to count the votes) is a state level right set out in the constitution. To implement online voting, you would have to get every state to agree to count online votes and that's just not happening. As mentioned by someone else, US servicemembers can vote online....in some states. Despite identification verification obviously not being a problem, most states just don't allow it and they can't be forced to.

The federal government could design the online system, magically ensure everyone had access to it, that everyone had a device capable of using it, training on how to use it, etc, etc, etc....and if Alabama says they're not counting online votes, there's literally nothing the federal government can do to make them do it.
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I don't remember much from Constitutional Law classes 25 years ago, but there are ways for the federal to preempt the states. I just haven't spent a minute in that world since law school and have minimal interest in spending time researching this. But I would expect there to be a way of getting simple general online voting for presidential elections implemented.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
I don't remember much from Constitutional Law classes 25 years ago, but there are ways for the federal to preempt the states. I just haven't spent a minute in that world since law school and have minimal interest in spending time researching this. But I would expect there to be a way of getting simple general online voting for presidential elections implemented.
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Yes.... By Amendment... (In this case) as the Constitution is fairly (though archaic) simple to read. Just like how women and African Americans were given the right to vote.

Good luck on getting that through
 
LeafOfFaith said:
but there are ways for the federal to preempt the states.
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Of course. They can just change the constitution.

morgan-freeman-good-luck.gif


But I would expect there to be a way of getting simple general online voting for presidential elections implemented.
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There is not. Trust me bro.
 
Tryamw said:
The Constitution.. the States handle the Elections...

Article I, Section 4, Clause 1:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Sorry that wasn't the President:

Article II, Section 1​



The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
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Yes, but this is talking about the Electors once the state citizenry has cast its votes.

And Congress selects the time for choosing the Electors and the day those individuals vote. And that day will be the same throughout the US.

This doesn't speak at all to the process for establishing or modifying the process that regular folks cast their votes for the Electors who then go through the silly formality of voting for the President.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Yes, but this is talking about the Electors once the state citizenry has cast its votes.

And Congress selects the time for choosing the Electors and the day those individuals vote. And that day will be the same throughout the US.

This doesn't speak at all to the process for establishing or modifying the process that regular folks cast their votes for President.
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Each State shall appoint , In such a manner as the Legislature Thereof may direct,

So the State Legislatures are allowed to set the rules by which the electors are chosen. . and Remember the citizenry does NOT EVER vote for the President nor Vice President. We vote for the electors that SAY they will vote for X person. Some States have rules about Being a faithless elector. (AKA you didn't vote the way you said you were.) I honestly can not tell you which states have those rules.


The founding fathers feared the unlearned masses and set this up as a safeguard.. Note Senator's were also supposed to provide such bulwark til we changed how they are voted upon.
 
Tryamw said:
Each State shall appoint , In such a manner as the Legislature Thereof may direct,

So the State Legislatures are allowed to set the rules by which the electors are chosen. . and Remember the citizenry does NOT EVER vote for the President nor Vice President. We vote for the electors that SAY they will vote for X guy. Some States have rules about Being a faithless elector (AKA you didn't vote the way you said you were.) I honestly can not tell you which states have those rules.


The founding fathers feared the unlearned masses and set this up as a safeguard.. Note Senator's were also supposed to provide such bulwark til we changed how they are voted upon.
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Yes, I had already edited my last line to make note of the electoral college nonsense.

Doesn't change the fact that the Constitution is managing how the electors cast their votes, not the citizenry that elects the electors.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Yes, I had already edited my last line to make note of the electoral college nonsense.

Doesn't change the fact that the Constitution is managing how the electors cast their votes, not the citizenry that elects the electors.
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Correct other then Stating it's the STATES job to make it happen. (And in particular the legislatures of the States job.)
 
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