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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>General Government </title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/16.aspx</link><description>Government Employees, Election Law, Constitution, Transparency, Branches</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2008 (Debug Build: 30417.1769)</generator><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/285411.aspx</link><pubDate>Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:09:44 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:285411</guid><dc:creator>TaterSalad</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/285411.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=285411</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;.One Nation under socialism?&amp;nbsp; I think not!&amp;nbsp; It is as simple as that!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=70298"&gt;http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=70298&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/285006.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:39:50 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:285006</guid><dc:creator>right to do bussiness</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/285006.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=285006</wfw:commentRss><description>truth and honesty - this is not a democracy , to a republic for which it stands.  the gypsy lives in a democracy.&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/284980.aspx</link><pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:42:33 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:284980</guid><dc:creator>TaterSalad</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/284980.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=284980</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class="edit-comment" id="edit-comment93127" style="background:none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To Thrive or Not to Thrive. Are we being played as suckers?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel="nofollow" href="http://constitutionalwrites.com/2012/03/08/to-thrive/"&gt;http://constitutionalwrites.com/2012/03/08/to-thrive/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/283047.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:22:57 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:283047</guid><dc:creator>truckingal</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/283047.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=283047</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;You are attempting to misled people here, Kohler! The fact is, these National Popular Vote schemes dont work they way you are describing.&amp;nbsp; The way they work is two-fold: the electoral votes within a state or region ALL go with the popular vote in the largest states. So, if New York goes 51% for one candidate, that candidate gets ALL of that state&amp;#39;s lelctoral votes. These schemes also state that the ALL electoral votes from any state in the agreement automatically convert to the &amp;#39;popular&amp;#39; vote-which is obviously that large state&amp;#39;s vote-and the votes assigned to the electors. Now, since we just &amp;#39;GAVE&amp;#39; New York all of the New York votes, and same for the rest of the seaboard states, now the smaller midwestern sates dont have a chance-because their votes will all be assigned to the winner of seaboard states. Voila! Now, New York, California, Florida and Texas have imposed their vote preference on everybody! The rest of us might as well not vote!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/283042.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:23:01 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:283042</guid><dc:creator>TaterSalad</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/283042.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=283042</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;This bill is a joke and all the liberal dimwits will jumpl on the bandwagon to support it!&amp;nbsp; Watch!&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279187.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:31:45 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279187</guid><dc:creator>kohler</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279187.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279187</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;The 11 most populous states contain 56% of the population of the United States &lt;br /&gt;and a candidate would win the Presidency if 100% of the voters in these 11 &lt;br /&gt;states voted for one candidate. However, if anyone is concerned about this &lt;br /&gt;theoretical possibility, it should be pointed out that, under the current &lt;br /&gt;system, a candidate could win the Presidency by winning a mere 51% of the vote &lt;br /&gt;in these same 11 states -- that is, a mere 26% of the nation&amp;#39;s votes.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;With National Popular Vote, big states that are just about as closely divided as &lt;br /&gt;the rest of the country, would not get all of the candidates&amp;#39; attention. In &lt;br /&gt;recent presidential elections, the 11 largest states have been split -- five &lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;red states (Texas, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia) and six &amp;quot;blue&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;states (California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New &lt;br /&gt;Jersey).&amp;nbsp; Among the four largest states, the two largest Republican states &lt;br /&gt;(Texas and Florida) generated a total margin of 2.1 million votes for Bush, &lt;br /&gt;while the two largest Democratic states generated a total margin of 2.1 million &lt;br /&gt;votes for Kerry.&amp;nbsp; 8 small western states, with less than a third of California&amp;rsquo;s &lt;br /&gt;population, provided Bush with a bigger margin (1,283,076) than California &lt;br /&gt;provided Kerry (1,235,659).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the National Popular Vote bill were to become law, it would not change the &lt;br /&gt;need for candidates to build a winning coalition across demographics. Any &lt;br /&gt;candidate who yielded, for example, the 21% of Americans who live in rural areas &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;in favor of a &amp;quot;big city&amp;quot; approach would not likely win the national popular &lt;br /&gt;vote. Candidates would still have to appeal to a broad range of demographics, &lt;br /&gt;and perhaps even more so, because the election wouldn&amp;#39;t be capable of coming &lt;br /&gt;down to just one demographic, such as voters in Ohio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279185.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:25:35 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279185</guid><dc:creator>kohler</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279185.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279185</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;The current system of electing the president ensures that the candidates, after &lt;br /&gt;the primaries, do not reach out to all of the states and their voters. &lt;br /&gt;Candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or care &lt;br /&gt;about the voter concerns in the dozens of states where they are safely ahead or &lt;br /&gt;hopelessly behind. The reason for this is the state-by-state winner-take-all &lt;br /&gt;rule (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but now used by 48 states), under &lt;br /&gt;which all of a state&amp;#39;s electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the &lt;br /&gt;most votes in each separate state. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Presidential candidates concentrate their attention on only a handful of closely &lt;br /&gt;divided &amp;quot;battleground&amp;quot; states and their voters.&amp;nbsp; In 2008, candidates &lt;br /&gt;concentrated over two-thirds of their campaign events and ad money in just six &lt;br /&gt;states, and 98% in just 15 states (CO, FL, IN, IA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NH, NM, NC, &lt;br /&gt;OH, PA, VA, and WI).&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;19 of the 22 smallest and medium-small states (with less &lt;br /&gt;than 7 electoral college votes) were not among them. &amp;nbsp;Over half (57%) of the &lt;br /&gt;events were in just four states (Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia).&amp;nbsp; In &lt;br /&gt;2004, candidates concentrated over two-thirds of their money and campaign visits &lt;br /&gt;in five states; over 80% in nine states; and over 99% of their money in 16 &lt;br /&gt;states, and candidates concentrated over two-thirds of their money and campaign &lt;br /&gt;visits in five states and over 99% of their money in 16 states.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Two-thirds of the states and people have been merely spectators to the &lt;br /&gt;presidential elections.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Voter turnout in the &amp;quot;battleground&amp;quot; states has been 67%, while turnout in the &lt;br /&gt;&amp;quot;spectator&amp;quot; states was 61%.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Policies important to the citizens of &amp;lsquo;flyover&amp;rsquo; states are not as highly &lt;br /&gt;prioritized as policies important to &amp;lsquo;battleground&amp;rsquo; states when it comes to &lt;br /&gt;governing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279183.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:20:31 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279183</guid><dc:creator>kohler</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279183.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279183</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;A survey of 800 Michigan voters conducted on December 2-3, 2008 
showed 73% overall support for a national popular vote for President. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Support was 73% among independents, 78% among Democrats, and 68% among Republicans. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By age, support was 77% among 18-29 year olds, 67% among 30-45 year 
olds, 74% among 46-65 year olds, and 75% for those older than 65. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By gender, support was 86% among women and 59% among men. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;http://nationalpopularvote.com/pages/polls.php#MI_2008DEC&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279171.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:22:30 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279171</guid><dc:creator>gypsy</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279171.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279171</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;The electoral college thwarts the one man, one vote principal. We should join the compact of states to pledge our electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. No change in the constitution would be required to do so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279169.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:14:41 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279169</guid><dc:creator>changeagent</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279169.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279169</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;Leave the electoral college alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279165.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:02:27 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279165</guid><dc:creator>truthandhonesty</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279165.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279165</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;I agree!!!! People- educate yourself to the reason why we have the Electoral College in our democracy. It may not always go the way you want or the way I want but it&amp;#39;s FAIR!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279163.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:43:04 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279163</guid><dc:creator>Brian Wood</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279163.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279163</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;The electoral system is flawed at best. What the hell is wrong with one person, one vote? What does a big state have to do with anything?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279148.aspx</link><pubDate>Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:49:29 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279148</guid><dc:creator>gypsy</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279148.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279148</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;This is a great idea. I&amp;#39;m surprised it came from a republican, since if it would have been in place in 2000, we wouldn&amp;#39;t have had to endure 8 years of Bush. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As for the argument that bigger states would have more influence in the Presidential elections than less populated states, they would, and they should. They have more people. American voters should decide who our President is, no matter where they live. The President is a representative of the people, not the states. We have Congressmen and Senators for that.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>Re: 2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279130.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:02:20 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279130</guid><dc:creator>truckingal</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279130.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279130</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;Are you NUTS??? The electoral college protects the vote of outlying residents and smaller states. Instituting any scheme to bypass the electoral college means Michigan citizens might as well not vote as the big vote states, like New York, Texas, California and Florida WILL determine the outcome of the vote. This bozo needs to leave public service as he obviously doesnt care about the requirements of the Constitution!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description></item><item><title>2010 House Bill 6536 (Elect U.S. presidents by a national popular vote )</title><link>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279129.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 2001 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">85480579-cbb1-4596-8e66-ca77d6981342:279129</guid><dc:creator>Votes Admin</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/thread/279129.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://www.michiganvotes.org/forum/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=16&amp;PostID=279129</wfw:commentRss><description>Introduced in the House on October 5, 2010&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href='http://www.michiganvotes.org/2010-HB-6536'&gt;Click here to view bill details.&lt;/a&gt;</description></item></channel></rss>