FAIR VOTE - According to the Congressional Research Service, over 600
attempts have been made to amend to the Constitution regarding reform of
the Electoral College since 1889 - more than for any other concern! And
that's even after the 12th Amendment fixed the most glaring flaws in the
original Electoral College rules.
Some recent attempts came very close to succeeding. In 1969, the House
passed an amendment calling for direct election of the president by a
margin of 370-70, and included such supporters as then-Congressmen
George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford and presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy
Carter and Lyndon Johnson. A Senate filibuster ended that particular
attempt, but it voted in favor of such an amendment ten years later,
falling just shy of the required two-thirds majority. Despite popular
support, misguided resistance from those who would hang onto this
antiquarian system has proved too staunch to result in a change to the
Constitution.
Now, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's electoral intentions a
looming question and the lingering memory of what might have been for
Ross Perot in 1992, the time is ripe to finally neutralize this
electoral relic. It is clearer than ever that the Electoral College's
imaginary benefits are far outweighed by its severe drawbacks; popular
vote losers taking office, allowing only a handful of swing states to
have any relevance, and opening the system to vulnerability to
independent "spoiler" candidacies (see George Wallace's 48 electoral
votes in 1968 and Strom Thurmond's 39 in 1948) that even have the
potential of throwing the election into utter chaos with the U.S. House
picking the president and the Senate picking the vice-president.
Luckily, a new plan has emerged to make literally every vote for
president count: the National Popular Vote interstate compact, already
passed in Maryland, is an agreement between the states (enough that add
up to the required electoral vote majority of 270) to allocate their
electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Every
American citizen has their voice heard under this plan and once-ignored
states will be showered with attention by candidates - and all without
the need to alter our Constitution.
http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
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attempts have been made to amend to the Constitution regarding reform of
the Electoral College since 1889 - more than for any other concern! And
that's even after the 12th Amendment fixed the most glaring flaws in the
original Electoral College rules.
Some recent attempts came very close to succeeding. In 1969, the House
passed an amendment calling for direct election of the president by a
margin of 370-70, and included such supporters as then-Congressmen
George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford and presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy
Carter and Lyndon Johnson. A Senate filibuster ended that particular
attempt, but it voted in favor of such an amendment ten years later,
falling just shy of the required two-thirds majority. Despite popular
support, misguided resistance from those who would hang onto this
antiquarian system has proved too staunch to result in a change to the
Constitution.
Now, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's electoral intentions a
looming question and the lingering memory of what might have been for
Ross Perot in 1992, the time is ripe to finally neutralize this
electoral relic. It is clearer than ever that the Electoral College's
imaginary benefits are far outweighed by its severe drawbacks; popular
vote losers taking office, allowing only a handful of swing states to
have any relevance, and opening the system to vulnerability to
independent "spoiler" candidacies (see George Wallace's 48 electoral
votes in 1968 and Strom Thurmond's 39 in 1948) that even have the
potential of throwing the election into utter chaos with the U.S. House
picking the president and the Senate picking the vice-president.
Luckily, a new plan has emerged to make literally every vote for
president count: the National Popular Vote interstate compact, already
passed in Maryland, is an agreement between the states (enough that add
up to the required electoral vote majority of 270) to allocate their
electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Every
American citizen has their voice heard under this plan and once-ignored
states will be showered with attention by candidates - and all without
the need to alter our Constitution.
http://www.NationalPopularVote.com
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