National Popular Vote
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and National Popular Vote (NPV) are both very bad for the United States and totally against the Constitution that the Founders created, fought for, and died for. Either one would give full weight to large cities and disenfranchise the rest of the country. While many sources compare ‘urban’ to ‘rural’ for population numbers, there’s a missing piece. Suburbs are grouped in with large cities, but they don’t necessarily have large city traits.
NPV has been called a wolf in sheep's clothing. The NPV plan is to effectively eliminate America’s unique presidential system. The National Popular Vote organization has been pushing its anti-Electoral College legislation for years. It is an attempted end run around Article V of the Constitution, effectively eliminating the Electoral College without the bother of a constitutional amendment. That end run is much easier than the formal constitutional amendment process, which would require the support of 38 states. See more in this article. Ballotpedia also has useful information.
NPV claims “The 100 Biggest Cities Have 59,849,899 People, and the Rural Areas Have 59,492,267 People“. Yet, America’s total population as of May 26, 2023, is 336,607,917. That accounts for a little over 50% of the population. Where do the other ~117 million people live? That seems like incomplete information to me.
Where Half Of The Country Actually Lives
If you like your space, avoid the blue counties above because more than half of Americans live in those specific places. Yikes.
Census definitions include a wide spectrum of places that count as cities.
SaveOurStates gives probably the best explanation and has lots of information to help.
I live in a suburb near Dallas, Texas. Here, there are not too many things in common with Dallas. While, our city has convenient access to plenty of amenities, restaurants, and other big city characteristics, we have less crime, lower prices, lower property taxes, better schools, better city services and emergency services. I’m sure some suburbs are different.
For comparison of urban, suburban, and rural areas, click here.
When I consider the characteristics of the largest 10 cities in the U.S., I certainly don’t want them to be the deciding vote for president.
Popular vote vs Electoral College vote has been a hot topic for a long time.
Now, let’s look at Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). RCV is harder to understand, and is illogical. Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a confusing, chaotic “reform” being pushed by mega-liberal political donors and other activists. It fundamentally changes the election process, effectively disenfranchises voters, and allows marginal candidates not supported by a majority of voters to be elected. It is a confusing and opaque process that robs voters of the ability to re-educate and re-examine the top two vote-getting candidates in a run-off election when one candidate does not initially win a majority, and it diminishes the ability of voters to make informed, knowledgeable choices of who would best represent them. Voters and state legislators - regardless of political affiliation - should oppose RCV as an ill-advised, imprudent election “reform” that would confuse and hurt voters.
Here’s a 3-minute video that will help: Ranked Choice Voting Explained.
Overall, the brave men who fought for the birth of America - against taxation without representation - drew up the Constitution to be as fair as possible, to give equal weight to all states and all persons. And I, for one, am totally against changing the way our president is elected, and I’m certainly against ‘an end run’ around the Constitution.
VoteTexas.gov, https://www.votetexas.gov/get-involved/index.html
Check out this Population Clock. Interesting!
Until next time…
Thanks again for reading! I’m glad you’re here!
You can always see everything on the website, ellenleyrer.substack.com/.
Please share your thoughts in the comments. Or email me, and let’s have a problem-solving conversation. I welcome ‘letters to the editor’ type emails and may publish yours. I hope we can create a caucus with positive, back-to-the-founders’-dream-for-America results. Have a topic you want to know more about?
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