Democrats Push For Ending Electoral College To Prevent Another Trump Victory

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Democratic presidential candidates are suggesting abolishing the electoral college in order to prevent President Donald Trump from repeating his 2016 victory.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is one who has joined a partisan push to scrap the Electoral College

She said that she would back a plan to do away with the Electoral College during a CNN town hall event with Jake Tapper.

Senator Kamala Harris said she was also “open to” discussing eliminating the Electoral College because the popular vote “has been diminished in terms of making the final decision about who’s the president.”

Press TV reports: The current election system in the US overrides the popular vote, which gives the victory to the candidate winning the most ballots, in favor of a so-called winner-take-all mechanism.

This means the Electoral College with its 538 electors across different states, who are chosen based on each state’s representation in Congress, is liable for electing the chief executive.

Despite losing the popular vote to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, by a significant margin, Trump still won the 2016 White House race in a 304-227 electoral vote landslide. The threshold for winning presidency is 270 electoral votes.

Speaking in a televised CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Warren said Monday that it was impossible to have a “national vote” in America with the Electoral College in place.

“Well, my view is that every vote matters. And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting. And that means get rid of the electoral college and everybody counts,” Warren said to enthusiastic applause.

The 69-year-old Massachusetts lawmaker called for amendment to the US Constitution that guaranteed the right to vote for all citizens, including convicted felons, and said it was equally important to scrap laws that made casting ballots more difficult.

This puts Warren next to Clinton, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many other Democrats who have called for ending the Electoral College.

Last October, when she was running to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District, Ocasio-Cortez famously called the Electoral College a vestige of slavery.

“It is well past time we eliminate the Electoral College, a shadow of slavery’s power on America today that undermines our nation as a democratic republic,” she wrote on Twitter.

Hillary Clinton made a similar call in an article published by The Atlantic last month, saying that the “legitimacy” of the US election system was in doubt.

 “And you won’t be surprised to hear that I passionately believe it’s time to abolish the Electoral College,” she wrote.

Ongoing efforts

Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee has introduced a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college but it has yet to be brought up for a vote in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats.

At the same time, at least 12 states plus the District of Columbia – with a total of 181 electoral votes— have signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement that requires the signatory states to select their presidential electors based on who wins the popular vote nationwide regardless of the overall state outcome.

The compact would only take effect when enough states have signed to push the total electoral votes to 270, an objective that experts say is impossible to fulfill before the 2020 election.

Republicans in favor of keeping Electoral College

Unlike Democrats, most Republicans are against changing the current election system in US, a trend that rose sharply after Trump’s victory.

6 Comments

  1. It’s bigger than that. Yes they want to get Trump out but even bigger, the elimination of the EC will give the liberal coasts total control over all politics.

  2. The DEMO-FASCISTS aren’t content with the rigging they did in the last election…they need to further rig future elections as well. They hate that they had to rely on FBI, DOJ, CIA dirty cops and Corrupt Lawyers this last time around.
    Democrats always find sneaky ways to Commit Election Fraud.. Just like the use #FakeNews #Fearfactory #Freakshow for Republican Voter Supression.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cbbce31fa6f1b4c63d9b1f0a303bafa9e0483df6c7c25707dab44d1ba67d3694.jpg

  3. They are not Democrats. They are Jews and they believe they have a God given right to dictate and rule over all non-Jews. What do our laws, culture and traditions mean to the chosen. Nothing.

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