General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Do you favor the removal of the Electoral College? [View all]mvymvy
(309 posts)To abolish the Electoral College would need a constitutional amendment, and could be stopped by states with less than 6% of the U.S. population.
Instead, State legislators in states with 75 more electoral votes are needed to enact the National Popular Vote bill.
There have been hundreds of unsuccessful proposed amendments to modify or abolish the Electoral College - more than any other subject of Constitutional reform.
In 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 338-70 to require winning the national popular vote to become President.
3 Southern segregationist Senators led a filibuster to kill it.
The National Popular Vote bill simply again changes state statutes, using the same constitutional power for how existing state winner-take-all laws came into existence in 48 states in the first place.
Maine (in 1969) and Nebraska (in 1992) chose not to have winner-take-all laws.
The bill will guarantee the majority of Electoral College votes and the presidency to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in the country.
The bill changes state statewide winner-take-all laws (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but later enacted by 48 states), without changing anything in the Constitution, using the built-in method that the Constitution provides for states to make changes.
States are agreeing to award their 270+ Electoral College votes to the winner of the most national popular votes, by simply again changing their states law.
All votes would be valued equally as 1 vote in presidential elections, no matter where voters live.
There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents states from making the decision now that winning the national popular vote is required to win the Electoral College and the presidency.
It is perfectly within a states authority to decide that national popularity is the overriding substantive criterion by which a president should be chosen.
The 2020 Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed the power of states over their electoral votes.
The decision held that the power of the legislature under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution is far reaching and it conveys the the broadest power of determination over who becomes an elector. This is consistent with 130 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence.
NationalPopularVote.com