What should be done about the Electoral College, now that, for the fifth time in US history, one candidate has won the popular vote, but lost to the candidate who won the electoral vote? How about giving Electoral College votes to the national popular vote winner?<\/p>\n

Over the years, three strategies for Electoral College reform have emerged:<\/p>\n

Abolish the Electoral College<\/h3>\n

The most prominent of these strategies is simply to eliminate the Electoral College and award the presidency to the winner of the national popular vote. Unfortunately, that is not a \u201csimple\u201d solution, both for Constitutional and political reasons. To do it, you\u2019d have to pass an amendment to the US Constitution\u2014and that is not likely to happen any time soon. It\u2019s also a big stretch to think that Republicans, who will have control of all three branches of the federal government after Inauguration Day 2017, would even put Electoral College reform on their agenda: The Electoral College system worked perfectly for their candidate this time around. In these circumstances, abolishing the Electoral College\u2014as fair as that strategy seems\u2014is probably dead on arrival.<\/p>\n

Proportional electoral votes<\/h3>\n

A second strategy would be to award electoral votes proportionately<\/a>. In the current system, as was made painfully clear on November 8, 2016, electoral votes are a winner-take-all deal. In a proportionate system, states would split their allocated electoral votes according to the percentage of popular votes that went to each candidate. That change would be up to state legislatures. Unfortunately, with the majority of state legislatures controlled by Republicans\u2014who have just seen the winner-take-all structure work to their candidate\u2019s advantage\u2014that\u2019s not going to happen, either.<\/p>\n

National Popular Vote<\/h3>\n

A third idea\u2014which has not been as widely discussed recently\u2014is to award Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote. This is not a brand new idea: The National Popular Vote<\/a> bill has been circulating in state legislatures for more than 10 years. Under this plan, states would award all of their electoral votes to the candidate with the most popular votes in the national tally<\/em>. This process is different from the current system, in which states award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote within their state<\/em>.<\/p>\n

According to the organization called National Popular Vote, the bill would:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2026guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide (i.e., all 50 states and the District of Columbia).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And it has momentum.<\/p>\n

It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes<\/a>, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more electoral votes [for a total of 270, the amount needed to be elected President.].<\/p>\n

The bill has passed one chamber in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes<\/a>. Most recently, in early 2016, the bill was passed by a bipartisan 40\u201316 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House, 28\u201318 in Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate, 57\u20134 in Republican-controlled New York Senate, and 37\u201321 in Democratic-controlled Oregon House. One of the first states to pass it was Maryland, in 2007.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you add it all up, the National Popular Vote agreement is already more than 60 percent on its way to activation.<\/p>\n

Is this constitutional?<\/h3>\n

Yes, says Fair Vote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Constitution gives states full control over how they allocate their electoral votes. The current winner-take-all method, in which the winner of the statewide popular vote wins all of that state’s electoral votes, is a choice\u2014and states can choose differently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The drawback, of course, is that the National Popular Vote bill is contingent on enough states passing it.<\/p>\n

According to Fair Vote:<\/p>\n

This [agreement among states[ takes effect only when enough states sign on to guarantee that the national popular vote winner wins the presidency. That means states with a combined total of 270 electoral votes\u2014a majority of the Electoral College\u2014must join the compact for it to take effect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s the catch, unfortunately. If you\u2019re a Republican legislator in a Republican-dominated state, and you want make yourself appear to be in favor of more fairness in the electoral process, you might just vote for it, because you\u2019re pretty sure that it won\u2019t reach its critical mass.<\/p>\n

[Yes, that is a cynical view. But three days post-election, cynicism seems justified.] I admit that, before Election Day, I was glad that the Electoral College was in place, because I thought it would act as a circuit-breaker preventing a dangerous candidate from being elected by a duped population. But of course, it was my own ox that was gored this time, and as the night wore on, I switched sides. You can call me a hypocrite, and I can\u2019t fight back on this one.<\/p>\n

But we should all realize that the electoral-popular vote disconnect can happen\u2014and has happened\u2014to candidates of both major US parties. National Popular Vote seems like a doable, fair solution\u2014which would best be enacted long before the next presidential election.<\/p>\n

We just need to find enough state legislators who give a damn about fairness and democracy to make it happen\u2014before the next time our screwed-up electoral system gets us into this mess again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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