« Cruise Ship Vacation WisdomAMERICA'S SHADOW BANKING SYSTEM, A WEB OF FINANCIAL FRAUD »

How U.S. Elections May Violate the 14th Amendment

February 4th, 2012

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

The ideal of 'one man, one vote' has NEVER been achieved. If your VOTE does not carry the same weight as does the vote of someone else, then YOUR rights under the 14th have been violated! For example, it is possible that a Presidential candidate could get a greater number of popular votes but, by losing a few large states, get fewer 'electoral college votes and, thus, lose the White House.

That's only one example and a more obvious one. On any given election, votes are NOT equal. Someone else's vote may be 'worth' more than yours or yours may be worth more than another person's. Votes are NOT equal. And, in some cases, some votes --perhaps your vote --may not even count.

    In a democratic election between two candidates, the winner is the person with the majority of the votes. But when three or more candidates run, things are seldom so simple. The winner often amasses only a plurality, not a majority, of the votes. (Bill Clinton, for example, won the presidency with 43 percent of the vote; Jesse Ventura won the Minnesota governorship with 37 percent.) The plurality winner could be everybody else's least favorite candidate and could even lose to each of the other candidates in a head-to-head battle. As Saari puts it: "The plurality vote is the only procedure that will elect someone who's despised by almost two thirds of the voters."

    --Discover Magazine, May the Best Man Lose, November 1, 2000

The 14th says that "..."no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

    All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

    --U.S. Constitution, 14th Amendment

The Equal Protection Clause can be seen as an attempt to secure the promise that "all men are created equal". But not only minorites but every person has a stake in his/her vote being counted but --even more imporantly --counting for as much as every other vote cast by every other person in the nation.

The most promising proposals include the 1) System of Single Transferable Vote (STV) proposed by Thomas Hare in England and Carl George Andrae in Denmark in the l850s. Adopted throughout the world, STV has been adopted to elect public officials, prominently in Australia, Malta, the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland as well as in local school board elections in New York City.

But other system have their own advocates. They include 'preference voting', the Borda Count, range voting et al. All have in common that they are far superior to any method now used in the United States in terms of how accurately any given election reflects the will of the people. My own 'preference', however, is the Borda count in which...

    ...each voter ranks all of the candidates from top to bottom. If there are, say, five candidates, then a voter's top-ranked candidate gets 5 points, his second-ranked candidate gets 4, and so on. Finally, the points from all the voters are added up to determine the winner.

    --Discover Magazine, May the Best Man Lose, November 1, 2000

It is hard to see how anything could be simpler and just as hard to see how a nation which tolerates the unequal nature of elections can make a straight-faced claim to being democratic or fair. It is had to see how any government formed as a result of unfair or inaccurate voting systems can claim to be legitimate.

-###-

The 'Cowboy' on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=546180814

Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership, Global Issues, Updated: January 02, 2009

No feedback yet

Voices  Share this page

Voices

  • Katherine Watt [07/23/23] Orientation for new readers As I read and write more about pre- and post-1959 Catholic teaching as they relate to current geopolitical events, I want to emphasize that I’m on a learning curve, and my views are developing as my…
  • Katherine Watt [07/29/23] Orientation for new readers Excellent new post by Sasha Latypova on Dec. 10, 1974 National Security Study Memorandum 200 ■ July 26, 2023 - Population Control Policy. Why would my government want to kill me? Don't they…
  • PressTV The Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza is funded by the United States according to Joe Iosbaker, an American political analyst and a leader of the Anti-War Committee – Chicago. 💬 “The US government leads the world in many…
  • Dr. Halvor Næss [06/17/23] It is now more than three years since the covid-19 pandemic started, and two almost self-evident statements summarize the most important lessons learned. 1. Without the draconian handling of the authorities, the pandemic would…
  • Dr Vernon Coleman If you want to know the truth about vaccines and vaccinations please read my book Anyone who tells you vaccines are safe and effective is lying: Here’s the truth. You can find it for sale on Amazon. 1. The UK is now sending long range…
  • Cesare Sacchetti When Donald Trump in 2016 walked down the mobile stairs of his New York residence, the Trump Tower, many prominent members of the deep state were anguished by a feeling of both panic and fear. Panic because for the first time after the…
  • Jeff Thomas The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one. That’s not a pleasant thought to have to consider, but it’s a fact, nonetheless. In every case, a democracy will deteriorate as the result of the electorate…
  • Walter Gelles Legal trickery would silence Dr. Charles Hoffe Prominent Canadian physician Dr. Charles Hoffe has spoken out courageously to warn people of the very serious dangers of the Covid mRNA genetic "vaccines". He now faces trial from the Canadian…
  • Stephen Lendman [04/05/23][Stephen died on May 9th, 2023, about a month after he wrote this article.] Illegitimately installed Biden regime criminals run the empire of lies and forever wars. A previous article discussed Trump’s politicized indictment,…
  • Linh Dinh [Pakse, Laos on 6/5/23] Sherwood Anderson, “For a time he was lonely and wrote to Alice almost every day. Then he was caught up by the life of the city; he began to make friends and found new interests in life.” Why quote a rather plain…
March 2024
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
          1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31            

  XML Feeds

multi-blog engine
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi