11-15-2016, 11:36 AM
Proposals for Changing the Electoral System
In addition to the fact that the Electoral College sometimes contradicts the will of the electorate, there’s also lingering fear that a strong third party candidate could prevent any candidate from achieving a 270 majority, throwing the election into the House of Representatives, something that hasn’t happened since 1877.
By the Electoral College’s own count, there have been at least 700 measures introduced in Congress at various times to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. None of them have gone anywhere legislatively.
Meanwhile, a group called National Popular Vote has come up with a plan to end-around the cumbersome process of enacting an constitutional amendment. The idea is to get states representing a majority of the Electoral College vote to pledge their electors to the winner of the popular vote. So far, legislatures in 11 states representing 165 Electoral College votes — well short of the 270 needed to win the presidency — have agreed to do so. The effort has garnered bipartisan support, however. Two years ago, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican who was one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in this year’s election, endorsed the proposed compact.
Supporters of the National Popular Vote initiative say they want to upend a system that, in recent presidential election years, has seen candidates focusing on the same handful of crucial battleground states and neglecting the rest. “It is a non-partisan effort to make every voter, in every state, politically relevant in every presidential election,” John Koza, the initiative’s leader, said in a statement to BillMoyers.com. In addition to guaranteeing that the winner of the popular vote would win the White House, he wrote, making the Electoral College a non-factor would “make voters in every state politically relevant to the candidates and their campaigns.”
Ref for posts 2 - 4: http://billmoyers.com/story/electoral-co...explained/
In addition to the fact that the Electoral College sometimes contradicts the will of the electorate, there’s also lingering fear that a strong third party candidate could prevent any candidate from achieving a 270 majority, throwing the election into the House of Representatives, something that hasn’t happened since 1877.
By the Electoral College’s own count, there have been at least 700 measures introduced in Congress at various times to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. None of them have gone anywhere legislatively.
Meanwhile, a group called National Popular Vote has come up with a plan to end-around the cumbersome process of enacting an constitutional amendment. The idea is to get states representing a majority of the Electoral College vote to pledge their electors to the winner of the popular vote. So far, legislatures in 11 states representing 165 Electoral College votes — well short of the 270 needed to win the presidency — have agreed to do so. The effort has garnered bipartisan support, however. Two years ago, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican who was one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in this year’s election, endorsed the proposed compact.
Supporters of the National Popular Vote initiative say they want to upend a system that, in recent presidential election years, has seen candidates focusing on the same handful of crucial battleground states and neglecting the rest. “It is a non-partisan effort to make every voter, in every state, politically relevant in every presidential election,” John Koza, the initiative’s leader, said in a statement to BillMoyers.com. In addition to guaranteeing that the winner of the popular vote would win the White House, he wrote, making the Electoral College a non-factor would “make voters in every state politically relevant to the candidates and their campaigns.”
Ref for posts 2 - 4: http://billmoyers.com/story/electoral-co...explained/