Saturday, November 05, 2016

Vote-swapping is back and it's always been legal

If you or someone you care about can't bring yourself to support Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's choice of helping Hillary (brief summary of what she'd do on climate is here), there's still another way to avoid handing the Electoral College to Trump. If you're in a swing state, you can swap votes with a Hillary voter in a non-swing state. Go to #NeverTrump to see how it works, a pretty simple process of connecting with your counterpart in another state and agreeing to swap (a news item about it is here).

These swaps first started in the final weeks of the 2000 election, but some Republican state leaders sent threatening letters with the facetious claim that swapping votes was buying votes. With all deliberate speed, a mere 7 years later the courts found it wasn't illegal, so this time they won't be shut down. The vote numbers don't change, it's just getting the votes where they count the most.

Another slow-moving outgrowth of the 2000 debacle where Gore won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College is an agreement between states to award their electoral votes to the popular vote winner. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will come into effect when states controlling a majority of the popular vote join; it is 61% of the way there so far. If your state hasn't joined, then it should.




17 comments:

  1. The #NeverTrump link is broken.

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  2. So who would agree to such a deal and how could you trust them? Sounds like nonsense to me.

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  3. Its more practical to pay for a block party celebrating Hillary's victory in states such as Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, or Maine. These block parties can be held from 4 pm to 8 pm on Tuesday, with free hot dogs, beer, and popular music suitable to Hillary voters (heavy metal, tango, new age instrumental and jazz). If you want to contribute to this effort please visit https://hillary_victory_celebration_donate.org

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  4. CapitalistImperialistPig, you trade those votes with people you already know. I do not know about Capitalist Pigs, but the liberals I know are generally trustworthy, that is why they do so well in this interconnected world build on relations and trust.

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  5. Victor - link fixed, thanks!

    CIP - they enter into some level of discussion, it's up to the two parties to feel they have enough trust. These aren't opposing sides like Clinton v Trump. Maybe someone's gaming it, but that wasn't discovered in 2000.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. At the time indicated on the stamp below, it seems certain that Trump has trumped Clinton. I weep for the USA, and for the rest of the planet.

    Say goodbye to global geopolitical security and to any chance for serious USA action on climate change mitigation. And the citizens of the US should probably study geopolitical and economic historians with expertise in the fall of the Roman empire, because there are many parallels to be made.

    Vale the "best" nation is the world.

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  8. Yeah but physics is still the coolest thing around and that won't be changing a bit, tomorrow or for a long time anyways, So as long as that ice keeps melting we should be ok, right?

    See how quickly things can go bad on an ok planet?

    That's why I advice paying attention to bad things.

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  9. In a surprise move the Russians ended up winning the Cold War and took over the USA without firing a shot.

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  10. Nigel, the Ukraine should probably be very nervous about an emboldened Russia, flushed with the victory of its favourite for the US presidency, and knowing that said (isolationist) president-elect will probably not bother to lift a finger if they march back in.

    And that's for starters.

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  11. 8c/TLE, physics is indeed cool... if only the planet's future could be categorised that way.

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  12. Don't say I didn't warm you. The German Vice-chancellor put it mildly, what you are confronted with now is an international violent authoritarian fascist movement that is going to make World War 2 look like a walk in the park. The ONLY thing that will save you now is that there is a lot of ice yet to melt, and there is a lot of carbon left in the ground with which to melt it. That's the only thing holding the facade of civilization together now, physics. You will have Rodrigo Rudy teaming up with Pence Putin and Donald Erdogan to put that nasty ho Clinton de Lima in her place and deal with the hippies and liberals.

    But heck, the Donald has a MANDATE to take America for a ride on the Highway to Hell just like George W. Bush did, but this time he has congress in the bag and 100% instead of just 91%. We can replace law enforcement with biker gangs now, just like America was meant to be.

    Here's what you need to do. Ditch the democrats and put together a real Progressive Party with Bernie Sanders in Colorado. You will have to take back Wisconsin if that is even possible anymore. And you will have to front competent candidates that understand science.

    And of course you will have to tax the churches. What are the chances? Zero. So take solace that physics doesn't give a damn.

    So whaddya think, axions and gravitons or modified gravity?

    I'm gonna have to go with gravitational axions on this one.

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  13. Oh do shut up TLE. This is moderately serious.

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  14. No thanks. I generally don't take advice or follow the demands of authoritarians and fascists. I'm good with the physics and ok with it. It's already bitten you in the ass and when it bites you again, don't call me.

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  15. All the gains in income since the crash went to the top percent. So much "money" has been "created" that there’s way too much of it sitting and not moving.

    Income inequality historically is — eventually — market failure.

    Wealth concentration ends up, predictably, in something analogous to what aircraft pilots call a "coffin corner" -- where there’s no response, no control, and no recovery possible.

    Zero or negative interest rates, hello?

    Before the USSR collapsed, I recall reading a paper (alas pre-Google) that most historical revolutions followed extreme inequality of wealth-or-income, and at the time the paper was written, only two countries were past the threshold predicting that would happen.

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  16. OT but: Two sources close to Donald Trump's campaign say that the president-elect has chosen a climate skeptic to lead his EPA transition team. Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, is in charge of the transition plans. Ebell is the chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group of nonprofits that “question global warming alarmism and oppose energy-rationing policies.” Trump himself has frequently doubted the reality of climate change.

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  17. Blogger Victor Venema said...
    The #NeverTrump link is broken.

    5/11/16 10:06 PM

    Who said the age of prophecy is past?

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