i open the floor for the nomination of president of the electoral college. gnize james proctor of the first district for the purpose of nominating and electric for the purpose of president of the college. >> madam secretary, i nominate robert levy, the elector from the second district or president of the electoral college. mr. levy is a lifelong republican. he is well versed in the rules of order. he should be more than capable of conducting the business of this meeting. >> ladies and gentlemen, you heard the nomination of elector robert levy of the second district for president of the college. do i hear a second? >> [no audio] >> any other nominations? hearing none, is there a motion to close the nominations? all those in favor of closing the nominations, vote aye. the ayes have it. moving to the election, all those in favor of a lot are robert levy of the second district so signify by saying aye. the ayes have it. collector robert levy will become the president of the 56 electoral college. and i asked mr. levy to please step up and take this position and pr

smaller populations but one hundred thirty nine thousand eligible voters in wyoming get one electoral college vote but it takes nearly four hundred seventy eight thousand eligible voters in pennsylvania to get a single college vote is wyoming really need to be protected. and no surprise here wyoming is a right to work for less state and pennsylvania is not so from the very beginning of our republic cheap labor corporatists they were called slave holders back then were able to manipulate our electoral system to protect their own cheap labor resources we had slaves in the eighteenth in one thousand nine hundred three or minimum wage workers in the twenty first century now that we know the game is going to try to time to end it and give workers and not their cheap labor or overlords more say in our democracy several states are doing just that nine states have passed national popular vote laws which commit their electors to vote for whichever candidate wins the national popular vote even if that candidate lost the state electoral college vote those nine states that have passed national popular vo

"a different view of the electoral college." hows the current electoral calculations but you use these numbers to show how things would change if non-citizens were not included. we could see which states would be winners and which would lose some power. the 10 states that would gain votes include missouri, iowa, pennsylvania. states that would lose votes would be texas, california, new york, washington. >> it could have a profound shift. in a close election, this could be decisive. pretty much, should we have our presidential elections limited to those who vote? i did not have a problem with that. i do not have a problem with including non-citizens in how we allocate congressional district. take the premise that there should be no taxation without representation. therefore, if you do not allow non-citizens in the calculus of how congressional districts are formed, they should not be taxed. you do not want to distinguish between citizens and non- citizens in a community. that's a different issue than how we elect our presidents. r

the electoral college is not a place but a process. the electors get together in each state, and they go through a complex process. but it is generally managed by the secretary of state or some other officials, and they give their votes for the electors in that state for a particular president. president obama has 332 electoral college votes and romney has 206. so in the states where romney won, those electors will vote for him. and in -- the next step is for them to send it to six different places in washington, d.c., but the main thing is they send a record of this to the senate. the senate than tallies them, puts them in two mahogany boxes. one box and -- they send it to the house of representatives where they officially open up the boxes and the elopes and at that point, count to see who has won. host: c-span will be covering the meetings in ohio and north carolina and coverage starts at noon eastern time with the ohio electoral college. 53rd meeting in columbus. you can watch the proceedings live from the ohio statehouse senate ch

about one hundred seventy plus electoral college votes have side nonsense that if an electoral college majority of states signs on to this plan it will go into action so all it really needs is a few more states to side under this and it will be a reality i think it's going to be a reality i think the arguments against this are pathetic i think they're undemocratic i think they're frankly un-american i think this is going to be a reality i think it's a matter of when not you know. definitely would be quite a good and interesting change they have thanks so much for joining us tonight. but you. are just ahead on tonight's show the g.o.p. is turning this whole debate around contraceptives into an all out war and if you're the party darlings are really using strong words against president obama so we're going to have more in our tools i am happy hour to get that story about in says that we tease you so much about yesterday and the steve jobs the f.b.i. file has been released so i look in the some of the details. well you know if you're in. new zealand in the early ninety's you get to the mo

-- nevada if they get rid of the electoral college?ow do you motivate someone in states that do not have as many electoral college votes to go out, if they're not in a key battleground state? guest: well, if you go back and look to the u.s. senate, i got the same for it the vote as brian moynihan. there is a lot of ground that has been which it the same vote as dan moynihan. -- the same vote as? moynihan. there is a lot of ground has been plowed. host: you see a way to fix the electoral college or are you find with the way it is today? guest: what changes could you make if i just said what i said? go look at the representation of wyoming or nevada against california, new york in the u.s. senate. gold with the disparities that go with everything in america. that is the way it is. you are going to get into those things, bless you, and keep strapping, but it will not get done, not in my lifetime, of course, i am stretching a little. host: senator simpson, thank you for joining us. guest: i am back on the witness protection program with si

electoral college votes that are now signed on to the national popular vote plan that is so. states representing about one hundred seventy plus electoral college votes have side nonsense but if an electoral college majority of states sides on to this point it will go into action so all it really needs is a few more states to sign it under this and it will be a reality i think it's going to be a reality i think the arguments against this are pathetic i think they're undemocratic i think they're frankly on america and i think this is going to be a reality i think it's a matter of whether or not you know. definitely would be quite a good and interesting change they had thanks so much for joining us tonight thank you. i just ahead on tonight's show the g.o.p. is turning the fall debate around contraceptives into an all out war and i think the party darlings are really using strong words against president obama so we're going to have more in our told time and again happy hour we'll get to that story about incest you so much about yesterday and the steve jobs the f.b.i. file has be

first of all, if romney only carries the mccain states, the electoral college is 12 electoral college votes closer. because states like texas, georgia, south carolina, utah, arizona gained electoral college votes. states like new jersey, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts lost electoral college votes. ohio, michigan. so it's already closer only if he carries those. think about it this way. 3, 2, 1. there are three historically republican states that romney needs to recover. indiana, north carolina, virginia. indiana, i think everybody agre agrees, is already back in the republican column. i was having dinner with mitch daniels recently and i said, mitch, is there a white democrat south of indianapolis who's for obama who's not a college professor in bloomington? and he stopped eating his green beans for a second, thought and said "not that i can think of." those three are important. there are 39 electoral college votes in those three states. that's a swing of 78 if you win all three. >> do you agree that those are tough states this year for obama? >> virginia's going to be the toug

ohio is the big state with 20 electoral college votes.ident since 1964 has won the vote with out taking ohio. we will bring you the very latest information but right now 67 to 65 with governor romney in a slight lead. >> those are the numbers that were just mentioned nationally. mitt romney it is leading. that is only 4 percent of the precincts reporting. those numbers will change back and forth through out the night. and the president obama as campaign headquarters they are setting up. he is spending the night in his hometown in chicago. >> high as this had he? this is brought obama how are you? >> volunteers at a small campaign office in chicago are making a final day push to get voters to the poll. president obama up and thanked the workers and urged americans to exercise their right to vote. >> there are incredible folks working so hard and making phone calls and making sure people go out to vote. i want to say thank you to the american people. >> the present voted early this year and vice-president joe biden cast his vote in delaware

process -- the electoral college is not a place but a process. today is the process where the electors get together in each state, and they go through a complex process. but it is generally managed by the secretary of state or some other officials, and they give their votes for the electors in that state for a particular president. president obama has 332 a tour college votes and romney has 206. so in the states where romney won those electors will vote for him. and in -- the next step is for them to send it to six different places in washington, d.c., but the main thing is they send a record of this to the senate. the senate than tallies them, put them in two mahogany boxes. one box and -- they ascended to the house of representatives where they officially open up the boxes and the elopes and at that point, cal to see who has won. >host: c-span will be covering the meetings in ohio and north carolina and coverage starts at noon eastern time with the ohio electoral college. 53rd meeting in columbus. you can watch the proceedings live from the ohio

it would render the electoral college moot.an end run around the constitution. >> well, mo, i'm wondering, you know, though, we have been through -- only 12 years ago of bush and gore. growing up i thought with a situation of a popular vote, electoral college disconnect there's outrage. we might, you know, respect the winner as legitimate but a movement to reform that. do you think there's anything if that happens in two weeks? >> i think the butterfly ballot and irregularities overshadowed the issue in 2000. i think if this time mitt romney wins the popular vote and barack obama wins the electoral college vote both parties will have been excuse my language screwed in 12 years and it will blow up in a fiery ball and republicans will have none of it if that happens. finally, both sides will join together perhaps in saying, okay, starting with the next election, this thing should be junked. the three reasons for which it was created are obsolete. and anybody who's listening now going, it protects small states, you know, i mean, y

. >> sure, basically in order to win the presidency you've got to get 270 electoral college votes.can basically do is really quickly take a look at which ones are solid. which one are guaranteed. >> eliot: democrats will win new york, why spend monday there. >> why spend monday there, you'll get new york's electoral college votes. all the campaigns concentrate on the swing states. we arewe hear about the swing states but it's the electoral college votes that have them focus on the swing states. the person who actually got the highest popular vote ends up becoming president. >> eliot: the best example of that. >> 2000, al gore. >> eliot: he doesn't talk about it much but he got the popular vote. but he didn't get the electoral vote. >> we remember 2000 for butterfly ballots but al gore won the popular vote but he didn't win the electoral college, so he didn't become president. >> eliot: you don't want the president just focusing on those states that are in play, swing states, but a state that is a swing states almost necessarily gets more presidential attention, and attention from c

guest: some of the arguments in favor of the electoral college included it promotes stability and the tea party system -- and the two-party system. it requires you to acquire a broad swath of the electorate, a mix of large states and small states. it has not been scrapped in the senate is that small states have more power because each vote allocation is its house members plus its two senators and a small state has just as many senators as a large stay. it is tough to amend the constitution. we take an amendment to scrap the system. host: get your thoughts on this , this column from "forbes." guest: i think those statements like out an argument for scrapping the electoral college. every person's vote should matter the same. person has one vote. some states are getting more attention than others. president obama and mitt romney are focusing their time in nine or 10 states. host: this is mike from texas. caller: i believe most people would agree -- i think the electoral college needs to be done away with and the popular vote should be what determines our elected officials. it makes us fe

to a successful candidate five hundred thirty eight electors make up the electoral college when americans cast a ballot it's a vote for their candidate selected this is practiced only in the us and only in presidential elections it's the only election like that in this country i've been a mayor you were you get the most votes wins governor congress senate most states have a preferred party before election day so presidential hopefuls focus on undecided or swing states that will ultimately impact the outcome a lot of the smaller states have more influence than the larger population centers and so there is an argument that is now unfair that it's outlived its usefulness devoted to that while supporters insist the practice draws attention and cash to smaller states critics say the system is ancient and wastes time and money the electoral college was good when they put it you know why. you had to travel by horseback to washington as well as undermining standards the u.s. prides itself on if you're in favor of democracy if you're in favor of an electoral process where things are discussed and

like one hundred years where the the reelected president gets less of the popular vote and less electoral college votes than it has done in his first term ok but how would you describe the electoral system in the united states right now because we have suppressed voting we have all kinds of things going on with registration and but the americans say it's you know there's still the light on the hill to the beacon to the world how would you look at the democratic process in the u.s. now because there's so much big money there ok well the voting machines is also a problem we don't have a paper record of what's happened so in a sense the machine is going to pretty much say anything it wants. the end result can be produced i mean there are many problems with the elections in united states . the fact that two parties dominate usually get ninety eight percent of the votes there are no no third parties no viable third parties which is pre-processing this self in many countries you can easily have six or seven parties in parliament united states you know do we have two so-called independent. the green par

states need to realize is that it doesn't matter how many electoral votes they have, and the electoral college does present every state with two votes and they get a weighted advantage, smaller states do because of that. but it doesn't matter whether you're five, 10 or 20 electoral votes if you're a smaller state, theoretically it wouldn't. if you're a smaller state, and you're not a battleground state, nobody is going to pay any attention to you. now, i'm not saying that they don't, you know, put their airplane down like some of us do when we are camping in the states. they would've into every county and all of that. but in terms of, tom mentioned, in terms of the attention, the resources, the money spent, the organizational efforts, and more importantly to me, after the person has been elected, and is running for reelection, the policy decisions that are made with regard to these states. we had steel imports and steel tariffs by a president who is a free trader. and we can see what's going on that in the obama administration. how many, practically living in ohio and new hampshire. i mean, oh

he has a vit victory in electoral college but he faces this. reach across the aisle as governor romney said bill clinton and the choice of bill clinton in the key speech in his second term pivoted and became a bipartisan president in the sense that he reached out to gingrich and worked on welfare reform and in a bipartisan fashion. this is a second term for him to run for history and >> the time now is 39 after the top of the hour. still ahead we are taking a look at why people voted the way they did especially in ohio and florida including which way independents voted. >> president obama winning the electoral vote but the race was much closer when it came to the popular vote. is it time to rethink that system? >> this family used capital one venture miles to come home for the holidays. that's double miles you can actually use... sadly, their brother's white christmas just got 'blacked out'. [ brother ] but it's the family party! really jingles your bells, doesn't it? my gift to you! the capital one venture card! for any flight, any time! that'

caller: i would just like to say the electoral college, i don't know a lot about it -- i know there areesentatives from each state and i guess that is how they vote for the electoral votes, but it seems like the republicans have so many red on the map. there is not a lot of blue for the democrats and not a lot of white for the independence. that tells me that the electoral votes would go more for the republicans. i really don't know about it, but the popular the should be the one -- but the popular vote should be the one we are considering at not the electoral the time. if the republicans control the senate and the house for -- house of representatives, how can the democrats win anyway? this would give them a fair shake. that is my thing. i think this president has been shriveling in this office because of the republicans -- has been struggling in this office because the republicans have not been working with him. we still have the race line. that is something they didn't talk about. mitt romney talked about how he will help the poor people. we talk about the middle class. what about th

problem then he ended up losing the popular vote and winning electoral college. there's a lot of -- the research that's been done has said the dui thing didn't have that much impact.

from its rather than winner take all who's that wants one electoral college vote awarded for each congressional district one so for example ohio has sixteen congressional districts so its electoral college votes would be doled out based on which candidate won each district plus two votes going to the overall winner of the state this is not a good idea in fact this is a spam thanks to republican juror mandarin efforts in two thousand and eleven most congressional districts in ohio favor republicans thus giving them an edge in this scheme in fact it has to plan where to fact this election romney would have actually won a majority of electoral college votes in ohio despite president obama hugely winning the popular vote in that state. pennsylvania's republican governor tom corbett floated the same idea for his state earlier this year but backed down from this crazy idea under pressure if he was successful though just like in ohio mitt romney would have won the majority of electoral college votes in the state despite losing to president obama in the total vote assuming republican

but now it was time to work these young minds by introducing them to the electoral college. arkers or colored pencils, will get the table's one electoral vote. of course in real life states have varying amounts of electoral votes depending on the population. table 1 selector, how do you cast your vote? >> markers. reporter: table 2's electoral how do you cast your vote? >> markers reporter: table 3's elector? colored pencils reporter: the wholly lex came down to one state. table 5's elector. this is it, guys. this will decide the whole thing. elector, how do you cast your vote? >> colored pencils. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: what's that? that was cheating. everybody thinks it's unfair because it's not just about the elector's votes. it's about everybody's votes >> reporter: what happened to these kids has happened four times in presidential elections. john quincy adams, rutter b. hayes, benjamin harrison and of course george w. bush all lost the popular vote but won the white house. >> all over the world, where presidents are elected, they're elected by direct popula

the problem with it as it presently operates is it's not the electoral college per se by the winner takes all system of choosing electors, which essentially meaning only about 18 states get a campaign. you have to change that. >> so let's talk about the popular vote versus the electoral. just like we saw in 2000, a candidate can still lose the popular vote and win the presidency. you don't think that needs to change? >> no, i don't think that needs to change. our republican has survived with that 14 times. i'm not sure it would survive a 100-day recount or low plurality president or a national media campaign which will afflict all of the media attention to all of the states. i don't think the country would survive very well without it and that's what would happen with the direct election. there is other ways. . you know, we could elect our electors proportionally which would put them to go into every state because they would have something to gain or we could do it as it now exists in nebraska and maine, which if you win the popular vote in the state, you only get the two electors represe

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it is electoral college the most broken in our system?>> is it the most important thing? if we are concerned or oppose one man and one vote in constitutional government, the senate has to be abolished. it's a real injury. >> it's on my sights, next. >> the electoral college, only three times a discrepancy between the popular vote and electoral vote. with the senate, we deal with it every day. if we think this is a problem, that's where the energies need to be directed at. i think -- i think -- i think it's okay for small states to have a representation. >> if it's not broke, don't fix it, it's doing something about the way they campaign. >> i think the fact small states have overrepresentation is okay. i don't have a problem with it. it was part of the debate. when it comes to generally in the constitutional debates, it was a big issue. the small states were concerned their power would be overtaken with the big states. itis why we have the system we have. we are all on this show and all live in cities. most of our political discussion is

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is the electoral college outdated?to our website and i will share the results at the end of the show. gerri: investors sending stocks lower gerri: speculators whirring again. worried that the fed will employ a stimulus measures. this after the market rally came yesterday afternoon when the fed said it would take action. what is the real story? let's ask randy costner. welcome back to the show. it's always great to have you here. but that seems to indicate that we get some kind of stimulus. james bullard, that the president saying, going along at a slow pace is not enough to justify gigantic action. i would like to see some deterioration of the indication that we will slide down further. were they going to do? >> i think that jim made it very clear. speaking for himself, not for the entire fnc. if you look at the minutes, you will see that a number of members.it was pretty close to time to take some action. i think that they didn't take action at the previous meeting, and they are waiting to see how they are evolving. i

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it involves the voting for the president. >> oh, electoral college! i know this. i learned this in sixth grade. i'm sorry. i still don't know. [ laughs ] it just rings a bell. >> the electoral college is a system that was put in place by the founders in the constitution, and it is the process by which we elect presidents every four years. but, essentially, it gives states the right to elect a president rather than through a direct popular vote. >> just so we're clear, when americans vote, their votes don't go directly to the presidential candidates. rather, the votes go to electors in the voters' state. it's these electors, not the people who went to the polls, who actually vote for the president. that's why, during the election, you'll often hear the term electoral votes. the number of electoral votes each state gets depends on two things. first, every state, plus the district of columbia, is guaranteed at least three electoral votes. >> the idea is to have each state have a certain weight. the focus for the founders was not letting the large states get more powe

>> i think he will win the electoral college. i do not know about the proper their vote. >> -- the popular vote. the good news in philadelphia, that is a 1 million vote margin for president obama. it seems to be running ahead of 2008. >> congressman, there seems to be a high turnout in virginia. everybody is watching what will happen there. >> it is closed. i think mitt romney will take it. of all of these close states, met -- obama did the best in virginia four years ago. we like the turnout model today. it is close. we have made a lot of ground since 2008. >> if we look at the american economy and high unemployment, will mitt romney do well? >> it should, if ever body were voting the economy. but a lot of people vote along race, ethnicity, and cultural status. groups with the highest unemployment rate, african- americans, and young people, they are voting for obama. >> do you think the high turnout among ethnic minorities is what this really is about, as the congressman is suggesting? >> it is not just minorities. there are pro

. >> yes or no eliminate the electoral college.r no? >> yes. >> while some republicans argued against it, imagine the irony if obama loses the popular vote but wins re-election. >> everybody is going to flip 180 degrees if this actually happens. that is democrats will say that's the way the system works. you can't change the rules in the middle of the game. and prurebs are going to say without the popular vote, a president lacks legitimacy. >> now, nine states have voted to drop the electoral college. unless you see a split decision tomorrow, shepard, that's it's probably not the political will to change the current system. shep? >> shepard: william la jeunesse in l.a. you can follow you will the returns tomorrow night on fox news channel. bret baier and megyn kelly kick off the election coverage. i will anchor the coverage on your local fox station on the fox broadcast network. starting at 7:00 eastern time. the growing outbreak of meningitis has killed one more person. bringing the death toll to 30 now across the nation. that's a