• themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    But do you really think the residents of a state like Oregon, or Washington, or California will just be OK with their electoral college votes being passed to a popular vote winner who is a Republican?

    Yes, because they won. People who favor democracy understand they won’t always be in the majority, and that’s OK bedause they aren’t shitbags. People who only want the system to work in their favor are called Conservatives.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      This runs counter to the Lemmy narrative which says we need like 40 years of Democratic rule to unfuck the country.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        2 days ago

        To unfuck the Supreme Court. That’s still an issue regardless of how the voting is done. And it’s usually referenced to discredit people just saying “let the system work it out” and in favor of quicker solutions like packing the Court.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      2 days ago

      You have more faith than I do. If Oregonians thought their vote was overturned because of a national popular vote winner, there would be riots.

      • monkinto@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Their vote wasn’t “overturned” their vote counted just as much as anyone else’s they just lost.

        • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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          2 days ago

          Under the multi-state pact, if Oregon voted overwhelmingly for Harris, but Trump won the national popular vote, and our electoral college votes were delivered to Trump because of the popular vote, yeah, that would be overturning the will of Oregon voters and there would be riots.

          • monkinto@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            So when one town votes for trump and Harris wins the state the votes of that town are “overturned” by the state then?

              • monkinto@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Really? I grew up in a red town in Massachusetts and I’ve literally never heard a single person talk about their vote like that ever, let alone suggest that the town should join another state.

                • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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                  2 days ago

                  Welcome to Oregon!

                  Here’s the thing, the population centers, where people actually live, are super super blue.

                  The rest of the state is Trump country.

                  So every election, the people in Portland, Salem, Eugene, Corvallis, Bend and Newport call the shots. Everyone else feels disenfranchised because in those counties there are more square miles and cows than people.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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            2 days ago

            Overturning what exactly? To record their votes in the EC for the losing candidate in a symbolic gesture? No one gives a shit about that, they’re still losing. You’ll have the state tallies, which actually count people, if you really want to say “most Oregonians disliked Trump”.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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              2 days ago

              The way the multi-state pact works is that member states agree to give all their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote, regardless of who the state actually voted for.

              It doesn’t actually get rid of the Electoral College, that would take a constitutional amendment, it just re-apportions the Electoral College votes based on the outcome of the popular vote.

              So in 2000 and 2016, the Democratic candidate won Oregon, and won the popular vote, they would get all the electoral college votes, not a problem, even though they lost the election overall.

              Where it WILL be a problem is if the Democratic candidate wins the state, but the Republican candidate wins the national popular vote.

              State voters will be told “Yeah, we don’t care who you actually voted for, the Republican gets the votes from your state.” OMG there will be riots.

              Think of it like this… Your vote in your state gets inverted because of voters in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, etc. etc.

              • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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                2 days ago

                Your state EC vote for a losing candidate is a purely symbolic exercise with zero effect whatsoever on the result. And once the NPVC is in effect even the symbolism will be effectively nil as people no longer care or count electoral votes.

                If the Republicans win the popular vote, they’ve also won the electoral college, but even if they didn’t, that’s democracy. Trying to overturn the will of the people by reverting to an archaic and undemocratic system is anti-democracy. You have to actually believe the EC has some value to try go to the streets to try to restore it, but it’s a bad system that invalidates people’s votes, whether or not Democrats are winning.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        You mean if they lost? How many riots have there been in Oregon when the candidate Oregon shows didn’t win the electoral college? Trump lost the popular vote in 2016, but we didn’t see riots in Oregon.

        That’s not your best argument against a national popular vote agreement. The best argument is that no national campaigns would give a shit about Oregon if the goal was winning the national popular vote. Oregon is a progressive coastal state, but it’s still a flyover state.

        In fact, states wouldn’t matter at all. State borders are just imaginary lines drawn around population centers. Campaigns would focus exclusively on demographics and high density population zones. Oregonians as a demographic would be considered “safe” for progressives and “lost” for conservatives, so neither side would give them much effort. California Republicans and Texas Democrats would be the big winners. States like New York and Florida would become the new battlegrounds, as candidates spoke to the concerns of the most people.

        And in a way, that would be much better. It would encourage more voters to actually show up, and local races would become more important. But with first past the post, winner take all national elections, you’ll still have two parties demonizing the other.