Overview
- Describes a new plan to improve the current election system under which every voter gains and no state loses its current Electoral College benefits, which has a chance to be introduced in the form of a constitutional amendment
- Analyses what the Founding Fathers overlooked and describes a logical mistake that they made in the initial design of the presidential election system
- Provides explanations of why the National Popular Vote plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause from the Fourteenth Amendment, and why the underlying claim of the plan is no more than wishful thinking of its originators and proponents
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Law (BRIEFSLAW)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book addresses the peculiarities of the current presidential election system not yet addressed in other publications. It argues that any rules for electing a President that may have a chance to replace the current ones should provide an equal representation of states as equal members of the Union, and of the nation as a whole. This book analyzes the National Popular Vote plan and shows that this plan may violate the Supreme Court decisions on the equality of votes cast in statewide popular elections held to choose state electors. Thus, the National Popular Vote plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The book proposes a new election system in which the will of the states and the will of the nation as a whole are determined by direct popular elections for President and Vice President in the 50 states and in D.C. This system a) would elect President a candidate who is the choice of both the nation as a whole and of the states as equal members of the Union, b) would let the current system elect a President only if no such candidate exists, and c) would encourage the candidates to campaign nationwide.
From the contents: The initial design of the Electoral College: basic ideas, logical mistakes, and overlooked problems.- The Electoral College today.- Curbing contingent elections.- Inconvenient facts about the Electoral College.- The Electoral College and campaign strategies.- The National Popular Vote plan: a brilliant idea or a dead-on-arrival delusion?.- Equalizing the will of the states and the will of the nation.- Conclusion.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Who Will Be the Next President?
Book Subtitle: A Guide to the U.S. Presidential Election System
Authors: Alexander S. Belenky
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Law
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32636-3
Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Law and Criminology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s) 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-32636-3Published: 01 October 2012
Series ISSN: 2192-855X
Series E-ISSN: 2192-8568
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 137
Topics: Private International Law, International & Foreign Law, Comparative Law, Constitutional Law, Political Science