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Since
the 2000 presidential election, 18 states have experienced a
shift in electoral college points. This fluctuation has caused
some Democratic leaning states to lose electoral college
points to Republican leaning states, with a few of those
Republican leaning states possibly turning Democratic in this
election. How would this electoral tie take shape?
Well, if you start out with the Democrats wining all of the
states that they won in the 2000 presidential election, and if
they were to gain just New Hampshire and Nevada, you would
have 269 electoral points for the Democrats. Then, if the
Republicans were to win all the remaining states, it would
equal 269 electoral points for the Republicans. That would
give you a tie of 269 electoral points for the democrats and
269 for the Republicans. In the event there is a tie in the
2008 Presidential Election, the United States Constitution has
a solution under Amendment XII. The States would have the
appointed individuals of the electoral college cast their vote
within the state to see if any of them change their vote. If
none of them change their vote, and there is still a tie, it
would go to the United States House of Representatives who
would then have the rare opportunity to pick the next
President of the United States. The United Sates Senate would
then pick the Vice President for the United States. These
appointments may fall along party lines with the remote
possibility of a Democratic President and a Republican Vice
President, if the current Congress chooses. If it is the
newly elected House of Representatives, it could very much be
a tie.
Which
states fluctuated in electoral points since the 2000 election?
See below:
States
that have voted Democratic since 2000:
Arizona
+2
Colorado
+1
Florida
+2
Georgia
+2
Indiana
-1
Mississippi -1
Nevada
+1
North Carolina +1
Oklahoma
-1
Ohio
-1
Texas
+2
Net Total
+7
States
that have voted Republican since 2000:
California
+1
Connecticut -1
Illinois
-1
Michigan
-1
New York
-2
Pennsylvania -2
Wisconsin
-1
Net
Total -7
Over
all, one must ask how accurate the electoral college is if it
uses congressional representatives to establish electoral
points for each state. If anything, there is some suggestion
that new congressional seats should be added to avoid a future
tie. However, according to the Constitution, Article One
Section 2, there is to be one reprehensive for every 30,000
individuals. With almost 300,000,000 people, that would
equal approximately 10,000 representatives. (See http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html.)
Unfortunately,
we may need to build a new capital building to house a stadium
that can handle that many representatives. So how did we get
to the point of limiting the size of congress? To answer this
the house has made an adjustment to the size of the
Representative body to be frozen at 435. This was done by
”The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 capped the
Membership at that level, creating a procedure for
reapportioning state delegations in the House under “the
then existing number of Representatives” (see Act of June
18, 1929, ch. 28, 46 Stat 21).”
http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/congApp.html
Even
though this was completed by the house there are many others
who have the understanding that the constitution had intended
there to be 2 houses of the Legislative government called the
Senate with equal representation for each state. And the
Second legislative body called the House of Representatives
with each member representing a specific size of the
population with in their state. http://www.thirty-thousand.org/
Even
if we were to increase the number of representatives we would
need to see some kind of limit to the numbers of
representatives. http://www.helium.com/items/421615-the-us-congress-should-increase-membership-to-better-represent-the-people
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/article1_analysis.htm
So
if one were to increase the numbers of representatives it may
allow for greater representation in our country and possibly
illuminate the idea of there being a tie in the electoral
collage. If anything an increase in representatives may help
us avoid having exactly, 269 electoral points for each
Candidate.
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