Snark: to annoy or irritate

"Snark" has been in English language dictionaries since at least 1906, and Lewis Carroll used the word to describe a mythological animal in his poem, The Hunting of the Snark (1874). Most recently, the word has come to characterize snappish, sarcastic, or mean-spirited comments or actions directed at those who annoy or irritate us.

At first, this blog was just going be a place to gripe, but because it's more satisfying to take action than it is to merely complain, now most of the posts/reposts suggest ways to get involved in solving problems.


Monday, February 13, 2012

National Popular Vote Bill


The Electoral College needs fixing.

Your action NOW can make the difference because the many state legislatures will soon be considering legislation to reform the Electoral College.

Under the National Popular Vote bill, the Electoral College would be reformed so that presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC will become President.

Presidential campaigns routinely ignore some states because electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the most popular votes within each separate state. The result is that candidates ignore states where they are comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind.
 
In 2008, two-thirds of the campaign events and money went into six closely divided "battleground" states.  98% went to just 15 states. Thus, voters in many states are mere spectators to the presidential election.  The same is true for 35 other reliably red or reliably blue states.

Learn more at www.NationalPopularVote.com

Under a national popular vote, every voter in every state would matter in every presidential election. A vote in your state would matter as much as a vote in a closely divided battleground state such as Ohio, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, or Colorado.

The states have the constitutional authority to change the method of awarding electoral votes and thereby establish a national popular vote for President. The National Popular Vote bill has already been enacted into law by New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont, Illinois, Washington state, California, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii.  The bill has also been approved by at least one legislative house in an additional 12 states.

The National Popular Vote bill would mean that the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC) would become President.  The current system has elected a second-place candidate in 4 of 56 presidential elections.

The National Popular Vote bill is endorsed by the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, FairVote, Sierra Club, the Brennan Center for Justice, NAACP, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, ACLU, the National Latino Congreso, Asian American Action Fund, DEMOS, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

The bill has been endorsed by newspapers such as the Hartford Courant, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, Sacramento Bee, and many more.  

As the Sarasota Florida Herald Tribune said: "The most compelling and practical alternative is promoted by a bipartisan group called National Popular Vote. The NPV proposal calls for legislatures to pass bills committing their state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide; the bill would take effect only when enacted by states that together have enough electoral votes to elect a president."

Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Learn more at www.NationalPopularVote.com.

Thank you.

Demand Progress 

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