Abolishing The Electoral College: Can A Law Change The System?

The Electoral College is a body of electors established by the Founding Fathers in the US Constitution in 1787 and 1788 to elect the US president. The College has faced criticism and calls for its abolition, with over 700 proposals introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate it. The College's critics argue that it no longer serves its original purpose, creates a risk of a candidate unpopular with the majority being elected, and distorts the popular will. The US Constitution's ambiguity about how votes are awarded to presidential candidates has also led to concerns about the College's potential to undermine public confidence in American democracy. While some defend the College as supporting the underlying value of federalism, others argue that it is unnecessary in a two-party system. As the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, abolishing it would require a Constitutional amendment, which has not yet been achieved despite several attempts.

The Electoral College is mandated by the US Constitution

The Electoral College is a constitutionally mandated process for electing the President of the United States. It was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787 as a compromise between those who argued for the election of the president by a vote of Congress and those who favoured a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Twelfth Amendment, which was ratified in 1789, restructured presidential elections and revised American politics in the early 19th century. It mandated that a distinct vote be taken for the president and the vice president, with one of the candidates being someone who is not from the same state as the elector.

The Electoral College comprises 538 members, with each state electing a number of representatives equal to its number of Senators (two from each state) plus its number of delegates in the House of Representatives. A presidential candidate must win a majority of the electoral votes cast, at least 270 votes, to win the election. The state's popular vote determines which party's slates will be made electors, and members of the Electoral College meet and vote in their respective states on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December after Election Day.

The Constitution grants state legislatures the power to decide how to appoint their electors, and while it does not require electors to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, most states have laws that require electors to cast their votes for the candidate chosen by the state's voters. However, the Constitution's lack of specificity on how votes are awarded to presidential candidates has allowed some states to allocate their Electoral College votes through other means, such as allocating votes at the congressional district level.

Over the years, there have been numerous proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, with over 700 proposals introduced in Congress in the past 200 years. While the Electoral College is mandated by the US Constitution, it is possible for a constitutional amendment to be passed to abolish it and move to a direct popular vote for electing the president.

Over 700 proposals to abolish or modify it have failed

The United States Electoral College, which decides the country's president, has faced over 700 proposals for its abolition or modification in the last two centuries. The Electoral College was created by the US Constitution, which did not specify how votes are awarded to presidential candidates. This vagueness has allowed states like Maine and Nebraska to reject the "winner-takes-all" system at the state level and instead allocate votes at the congressional district level.

The National Archives reports that over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, but none have become law. This is because the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment, which is a laborious process. A constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College would require significant consensus—at least two-thirds affirmation from both the House and Senate, and approval from at least 38 out of 50 states.

Despite the high bar for abolition, Congress has nearly reached this threshold in the past. In 1934, Congress came within two Senate votes of abolishing the Electoral College. In 1969, the House Judiciary Committee introduced a proposed constitutional amendment to replace the Electoral College with a two-round system based on the national popular vote. The proposal was quickly filibustered, and it died when the 91st Congress ended in 1971. In 1979, another Senate vote to establish a direct popular vote failed by just three votes. The 95th Congress proposed 41 relevant amendments in 1977 and 1978, and the 116th Congress has already introduced three amendments to end the Electoral College.

In recent years, public opinion has shifted towards supporting the abolition of the Electoral College. A 2019 poll by Politico and Morning Consult found that 50% of respondents wanted a direct popular vote, 34% did not, and 16% had no preference. Two months later, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal reported that 53% of Americans wanted a direct popular vote, while 43% wanted to keep the status quo. These sentiments have been reinforced by the fact that in two of the last five presidential elections, the candidate winning the popular vote lost the Electoral College.

The Electoral College has overridden the popular vote twice in the last five elections

The United States Electoral College is a process that includes electors from each state, who collectively form the Electoral College and cast their votes for president. The Electoral College system emerged as a compromise between the framers of the Constitution, who debated whether to elect the president by popular vote, Congress, or state legislatures.

In most elections, the winner of the Electoral College also takes the popular vote. However, in five close elections, the winner of the Electoral College lost the popular vote. This has happened twice in the last five elections. In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton received significant support in populous blue states like New York and California, which inflated her popular vote totals but did little to offset her deficit in the Electoral College. The 2000 election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore also saw a similar outcome, with the result being decided in Florida, where Bush won by just 537 votes.

The Electoral College has faced criticism and calls for its abolition, with over 700 proposals introduced in Congress over the past 200 years. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an interstate pact that would award member states' presidential electors to the candidate with the most votes nationwide. As of July 2024, 17 states and Washington, D.C., had adopted this legislation, totalling 209 Electoral College votes.

The 91st Congress (1969-1971) was closest to abolishing it

The 91st United States Congress (1969-1971) came the closest to abolishing the Electoral College. The 1968 presidential election had resulted in Richard Nixon receiving 301 electoral votes (56% of electors), Hubert Humphrey receiving 191 (35.5%), and George Wallace receiving 46 (8.5%) with 13.5% of the popular vote. However, Nixon had only received 511,944 more popular votes than Humphrey, a difference of less than 1% of the national total. This disparity between the popular vote and the electoral vote caused concern among the public.

In response, Representative Emanuel Celler (D-New York), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced House Joint Resolution 681, a proposed constitutional amendment to replace the Electoral College with a simpler two-round system based on the national popular vote. This system, similar to the one used in French presidential elections, would have the pair of candidates who received the highest number of votes win the presidency and the vice presidency. Celler's measure, H.J. Res. 681, was approved in the Judiciary Committee 28-6 in April 1969.

On September 8, 1970, the Senate commenced an open debate on the proposal, but it was quickly filibustered by mostly southern senators and conservatives from small states, both Democrats and Republicans, who argued that abolishing the Electoral College would reduce their states' political influence. A motion for cloture, which would have ended the filibuster, failed to receive the required two-thirds of senators voting. A second motion for cloture on September 29, 1970, also failed, and the proposal was never considered again, dying when the 91st Congress ended on January 3, 1971.

While there have been over 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College in the past 200 years, none have become law. This is because the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. The current system for electing a U.S. president is based on a compromise crafted by the Founding Fathers in 1787 between those who favoured election by a vote of Congress and those who favoured a popular vote of qualified citizens.

Defenders claim it supports the underlying value of federalism

Defenders of the Electoral College claim that it supports the underlying value of federalism. The Electoral College gives states an autonomous role in presidential elections, reinforcing the division of governing authority between the nation and the states. This, in turn, protects the interests of smaller states and prevents candidates from focusing solely on populous urban areas. Without the Electoral College, larger states could dominate national elections, potentially leading to regional neglect.

The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The term "electoral college" does not appear in the Constitution, but it is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment.

The Electoral College has faced significant criticism and calls for reform or abolition. Over the past two centuries, there have been over 700 proposals to either eradicate or seriously modify it. Critics argue that the Electoral College distorts the democratic process and undermines the principle of equal representation. In the 2000 and 2016 elections, for example, the candidates who won the popular vote ultimately lost the Electoral College and, thus, the presidency.

Despite the numerous proposals for change, the Electoral College remains in place due to the high bar for amending the Constitution. Any amendment would need to be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states. The closest the United States came to abolishing the Electoral College was during the 91st Congress (1969-1971), but the proposal was filibustered and never revived.

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