9th November 2016, 3:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 9th November 2016, 4:58 PM by A Black Falcon.)
... Well I still feel awful about this.
Even so, though, people deserve the person they voted into office, so yes, Weltall, just not in the way that I hoped, of course. Maine elected similarly horrendously insulting Paul LePage twice as Governor, and we got exactly what you'd expect from such a person... but I can't say it was undeserved, since he did win.
On that note though, here in Maine a referendum to change state-level votes to a ranked-choice system, where you rank all candidates in the order you want them to win, passed yesterday. There were five referendums this year, and currently all except for a gun-control one are passing. It's disappointing that that one is failing, but an increase to the minimum wage did pass and that's great. Ranked choice also passed of course, and it is potentially great because LePage would never have won in 2010 in the first place with it... so yeah, ranked choice will be good. Maine already has one other use of ranked choice, for Portland mayor elections, and it works pretty well. I think it's a good idea that should be implemented nationwide, because it would allow people to vote for a third-party candidate first and a major party candidate second, to support that third party without wasting their vote. As much as I support Democrats, I do think that would be an overall good. Also, of course... as I said LePage wouldn't have won. But that isn't the only reason to support it, so it's great it will be implemented for governor races too now. Maybe also state house & senate? Not sure. (Oh, and the Maine state house is kind of crazy -- it looks like, after this election, the Dems picked up 1 state senate seat overall, making for a 19 R - 17 D Senate, and Republicans picked up a few house seats, making for a 75 D - 74 R - 2 Libertarian state house. Gah. That sure looks like a recipe for gridlock... :p (Yes, we have a big state legislature, one of the bigger ones in fact. New Hampshire's is even bigger though!)
Nationally, yes, that Hillary won the popular vote is a really important point. I hope that this is another wake-up call for how badly we need a national popular vote of some form, by amendment or the "National Popular Vote" compact. We've badly needed this since 2000, but sadly it didn't gain enough traction and hasn't happened yet. It needs to. I've thought that getting rid of the electoral college was a good idea ever since the Bush-Gore debacle, but Republican and swing-state intransigence has so far stopped the national popular vote movement. Something needs to change to make it happen, because this kind of situation is unacceptable -- the person who most voters support should, of course, be the winner! And that's Hillary.
(Oh, and I don't think Bernie would have done better; he'd probably have done worse. Biden, though... that would have been an interesting one.)
Even so, though, people deserve the person they voted into office, so yes, Weltall, just not in the way that I hoped, of course. Maine elected similarly horrendously insulting Paul LePage twice as Governor, and we got exactly what you'd expect from such a person... but I can't say it was undeserved, since he did win.
On that note though, here in Maine a referendum to change state-level votes to a ranked-choice system, where you rank all candidates in the order you want them to win, passed yesterday. There were five referendums this year, and currently all except for a gun-control one are passing. It's disappointing that that one is failing, but an increase to the minimum wage did pass and that's great. Ranked choice also passed of course, and it is potentially great because LePage would never have won in 2010 in the first place with it... so yeah, ranked choice will be good. Maine already has one other use of ranked choice, for Portland mayor elections, and it works pretty well. I think it's a good idea that should be implemented nationwide, because it would allow people to vote for a third-party candidate first and a major party candidate second, to support that third party without wasting their vote. As much as I support Democrats, I do think that would be an overall good. Also, of course... as I said LePage wouldn't have won. But that isn't the only reason to support it, so it's great it will be implemented for governor races too now. Maybe also state house & senate? Not sure. (Oh, and the Maine state house is kind of crazy -- it looks like, after this election, the Dems picked up 1 state senate seat overall, making for a 19 R - 17 D Senate, and Republicans picked up a few house seats, making for a 75 D - 74 R - 2 Libertarian state house. Gah. That sure looks like a recipe for gridlock... :p (Yes, we have a big state legislature, one of the bigger ones in fact. New Hampshire's is even bigger though!)
Nationally, yes, that Hillary won the popular vote is a really important point. I hope that this is another wake-up call for how badly we need a national popular vote of some form, by amendment or the "National Popular Vote" compact. We've badly needed this since 2000, but sadly it didn't gain enough traction and hasn't happened yet. It needs to. I've thought that getting rid of the electoral college was a good idea ever since the Bush-Gore debacle, but Republican and swing-state intransigence has so far stopped the national popular vote movement. Something needs to change to make it happen, because this kind of situation is unacceptable -- the person who most voters support should, of course, be the winner! And that's Hillary.
(Oh, and I don't think Bernie would have done better; he'd probably have done worse. Biden, though... that would have been an interesting one.)