In the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton received nearly three million more votes nationwide than Republican Donald Trump. Despite Clinton’s substantial victory in the popular vote and a last-minute effort to sway electors away from Trump, he ultimately won the Electoral College vote to become the 45th president.
In response to this outcome — the fifth time in American history where the person who became president had lost the popular vote — a movement to end the Electoral College has been reignited.
Just after the election, outgoing U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced legislation to abolish the controversial system, arguing “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately.”
In her latest book, “What Happened,” Clinton herself echoed Boxer’s sentiments, listing the electoral system as one of the factors responsible for her defeat.
“I wasn’t just running against Donald Trump. I was up against the Russian intelligence apparatus, a misguided FBI director, and now the godforsaken Electoral College," she wrote.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper promoting her memoir, Clinton added, “I think it needs to be eliminated. I'd like to see us move beyond it, yes.”
But how would that work?
The two-minute spot features Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and is currently professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley, in a Schoolhouse Rock!-style video.
As Reich explains, abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, which has the extremely high bar of a two-thirds vote in both the U.S. House and Senate plus approval by three-fourths of state legislatures.
That’s why Inequality Media — a self-described nonpartisan digital media company whose mission is to inform and engage the public about inequality and imbalance of power — is instead promoting a solution that would render the Electoral College “irrelevant.”
Here’s how the initiative, called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, would work:
As outlined in the Constitution, the Electoral College is comprised of 538 members, and the candidate receiving at least 270 electoral votes wins the presidency.
The key is that Article 2 of the Constitution allows states to award their electors “any way they want,” Reich says. “So all that’s needed is for states with a total of at least 270 electors to agree to award all their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote.”
“If they do that,” explains Reich, “then automatically the winner of the popular vote gets the 270 electoral votes he or she needs to become president.”
Ten states plus the District of Columbia, representing a total of 165 electoral votes, have already passed the National Popular Vote Bill. Thus, in order to succeed, the interstate compact only needs a handful of additional states with a combined 105 electors to pass the necessary legislation.
The ad concludes by encouraging viewers to “find out where your state stands” at www.nationalpopularvote.com.
In response to this outcome — the fifth time in American history where the person who became president had lost the popular vote — a movement to end the Electoral College has been reignited.
Just after the election, outgoing U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced legislation to abolish the controversial system, arguing “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately.”
In her latest book, “What Happened,” Clinton herself echoed Boxer’s sentiments, listing the electoral system as one of the factors responsible for her defeat.
“I wasn’t just running against Donald Trump. I was up against the Russian intelligence apparatus, a misguided FBI director, and now the godforsaken Electoral College," she wrote.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper promoting her memoir, Clinton added, “I think it needs to be eliminated. I'd like to see us move beyond it, yes.”
But how would that work?
How to Abolish the Electoral College the “Easy” Way
A new ad from Inequality Media, not so subtly titled “How Do We Abolish the Electoral College?,” may hold the answer.The two-minute spot features Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and is currently professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley, in a Schoolhouse Rock!-style video.
As Reich explains, abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, which has the extremely high bar of a two-thirds vote in both the U.S. House and Senate plus approval by three-fourths of state legislatures.
That’s why Inequality Media — a self-described nonpartisan digital media company whose mission is to inform and engage the public about inequality and imbalance of power — is instead promoting a solution that would render the Electoral College “irrelevant.”
Here’s how the initiative, called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, would work:
As outlined in the Constitution, the Electoral College is comprised of 538 members, and the candidate receiving at least 270 electoral votes wins the presidency.
The key is that Article 2 of the Constitution allows states to award their electors “any way they want,” Reich says. “So all that’s needed is for states with a total of at least 270 electors to agree to award all their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote.”
“If they do that,” explains Reich, “then automatically the winner of the popular vote gets the 270 electoral votes he or she needs to become president.”
Ten states plus the District of Columbia, representing a total of 165 electoral votes, have already passed the National Popular Vote Bill. Thus, in order to succeed, the interstate compact only needs a handful of additional states with a combined 105 electors to pass the necessary legislation.
The ad concludes by encouraging viewers to “find out where your state stands” at www.nationalpopularvote.com.