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  • #2341944

    Electoral College

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    by john.a.wills ·

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    A lot of people want to replace the Electoral College with direct voting for the Presidency, as in Austria and the Irish Republic. But those presidencies are not executive and the societies are far more homogeneous.

    What I would like the U.S. to have is a differently acting and differently chosen Electoral College. The College would have 100 members, voted in from lists provided by the parties, using the d’Hondt highest-number procedure to get proportional representation. The College would meet in DC and chose not only the Chief Executive but all the members of the Cabinet, usually yielding some kind of executive coalition, e.g. a Republican President with a Green VP; if a lot of small parties got significant numbers of electors we might get a rainbow coalition, but I think we would usually get a President from a big party and a very few Cabinet members from a smaller party.

    The College would have the power to replace the Chief Executive (and other cabinet officers) during its term. The Senate would keep the power to ratify judicial appointments and also appointments to such independent agencies as the Federal Reserve Board. I am not sure about ambassadors, nor indeed about how exactly to define the Cabinet (it is not currently defined in the thin Constitution).

    Any thoughts?

    Any better ideas?

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