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THREAD: The Electoral College and its effect on elections for POTUS and VPOTUS
TLDR; We do NOT need a Constitutional amendment to ensure popular vote decides presidential elections.
Follow along and RT so others learn this important info.
TLDR; We do NOT need a Constitutional amendment to ensure popular vote decides presidential elections.
Follow along and RT so others learn this important info.
The Electoral College was established by the Constitutional Convention as a check against idiocy or authoritarian populism by the Founders. They gave each state the right to decide how to appoint or elect and how to allocate their electors.
At the time of the first competitive elections, only 3 states allocated electors by "winner take all" and all 3 abandoned that by 1800. The Founders had been dead for decades by the time that became a common method of allocation.
Because each state has the exclusive and absolute right to decide how to allocate electors, it has changed from time to time *in state laws*. Nebraska and Maine allocate theirs per congressional district. Currently the rest use "winner take all" allocation by state popular vote.
Five times, so far, the US has gotten a president who did not win the national popular vote ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote). In 1824, John Quincy Adams won in the House rather than either EC or popular vote. The other 4 won the EC but not national popular vote.
The US Constitution does not even require states to hold a vote among citizens to elect the president! Theoretically, a state could have its legislature or governor appoint electors *and* tell them how to vote or leave it up to them to choose.
Since each state gets to decide how to allocate its electors, it can change the method any time it chooses by changing state law. It could allocate them proportionally by popular vote, by congressional district, by drawing a name from a hat, whatever.
The National Popular Vote Compact is an agreement among states (binding, like a treaty) which would allocate electors in each state that passes it into law according to the *national* popular vote, once the states passing it reach 270 electors.
This NPVC would ensure that the national popular vote winner would always win the election, for as long as it stays in effect. The Electoral College would still exist, but would be unable to subvert the will of the majority.
Assuming the final result matches current results, Colorado passed the NPVC last night, bringing the total EC under the compact to 196. Others that have passed it are DC, RI, DE, HI, VT, NJ, NM, MD, MA, OR, WA, CA, IL & NY. It needs just 74 more electoral votes to take effect.
If your state has not passed it, call your state legislators and ask them to support the National Popular Vote Compact. You can check the status of the bill at https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state-status
Whatever questions you have about the National Popular Vote Compact, including constitutionality and how it would work, you can find answers at https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/answering-myths
Isn't it time that we ensure POTUS & VPOTUS are elected by the choice of the people, as in every other democratic republic in the world? We don't need a constitutional amendment to make it happen, just enough people to demand it of state legislatures or ballot initiatives. /fin
