Re: The "Make Elections Great Again Act"

Kristofer writes:

  More seriously, though, isn't this illegal? I had the impression that states were allowed to basically use whatever method they want to pick their electors.
Congress can override state rules with respect to Congressional 
elections but not with respect to Presidential elections. Some federal 
regulation of Congressional elections can constrain the states with 
regard to their Presidential elections but only as a practical matter, 
because Presidential and Congressional elections are held on the same 
day with the same administrative procedures. If a state were willing to 
administer its Presidential elections separately, this bill (if it 
passes, which I don't think it will) would not prevent it from choosing 
its members of the Electoral College by STV, or Condorcet, or MNTV, or 
drawing straws, or anything it can think of. That includes selection by 
the state legislature with no election at all.

--Bob Richard

------ Original Message ------
From "Kristofer Munsterhjelm via Election-Methods" 
<[email protected]>
To "Rob Lanphier" <[email protected]>; 
[email protected]
Date 2/2/2026 4:21:08 AM
Subject Re: [EM] The "Make Elections Great Again Act"

>On 2026-02-02 03:39, Rob Lanphier via Election-Methods wrote:
>>Hi folks
>>
>>In case you hadn't heard, the move to ban RCV (and all electoral reform) has gone federal in the United States:
>>https://legiscan.com/US/text/HB7300/id/3343097 <https://legiscan.com/US/text/HB7300/id/3343097>
>>
>>Here's the press release:
>>https://cha.house.gov/press-releases?id=460DC098-9C01-4F60-8BA5-E795D1501893 <https://cha.house.gov/press-releases?id=460DC098-9C01-4F60-8BA5-E795D1501893>
>>
>>Here's some mainstream reporting about it:
>>https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5712698-house-republicans-election-reform-bill/ <https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5712698-house-republicans-election-reform-bill/>
>>
>>...and here's a post I made to reddit about it earlier today:
>>https://www.reddit.com/r/EndFPTP/comments/1qt80c8/proposed_ban_on_rcv_at_the_federal_level/ <https://www.reddit.com/r/EndFPTP/comments/1qt80c8/proposed_ban_on_rcv_at_the_federal_level/>
>>
>>To quote the press release, this will:
>>
>>   * Require photo identification to vote
>>   * Require states to verify citizenship of individuals when registering
>>     to vote
>>   * Implement stronger routine voter list maintenance requirements in states
>>   * Require mail-in ballots to be received by the close of polls on
>>     election day
>>   * Require states to use auditable paper ballots
>>   * Ban ballot harvesting
>>   * Ban ranked choice voting
>>   * Ban universal vote by mail
>>If you were thinking "/great!//  they're banning //RCV/IRV/", bear in mind that the actual bill contains this:
>>  > /"A State may not carry out a general election for Federal office in the State using a voting system that— (1) permits a voter to vote for more than one candidate for the same office; (2) permits a voter to rank multiple candidates for the same office; or (3) reallocates the vote of a voter from one candidate to another candidate for the same office."/
>
>Great! Rated ballots forever, and/or two-round methods ("vote for more than one candidate for the /primary/, vote for only one candidate for office")!
>
>Or maybe my mostly-in-jest Condorcet method: for n candidates, create n^2 random "districts", one per pairwise contest, and ask each voter in the (A,B) district "do you prefer A or B?"
>
>More seriously, though, isn't this illegal? I had the impression that states were allowed to basically use whatever method they want to pick their electors.
>
>-km
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