Removing the Electoral College will, in effect, nullify State's Rights. Elections will be decided solely by the more populous states, with the less populous rural states being all but ignored.b322da wrote:I am unable to find reference to the "Electoral College" in the Constitution. "Electors" are mentioned in Art II, Sec. I, but not the "College," unless I have some mental block here. The Congress picked up the customary practice of using the term "Electoral College," and put it in the statutes at Art. 3, Sec. 4, U. S. Code.
The serious move to have the majority vote in any state send 100% of the state's electors to vote for that candidate was a result of frustration after Geo. W. Bush was declared the winner, receiving more electoral votes when the Supreme Court decided they wanted Bush to be president rather than Al Gore, who received more individual votes nationwide.
In my humble opinion the legislation under discussion does no damage to the Constitution, which does not address the issue as to how the individual states allocate their electoral votes.
"States Rights," remember?
Elmo
As it must be stated again and again because people don't get it: we don't live in a Democracy; we live in a Republic. The Electoral College was devised by the founders as a way of ensuring the smaller, less populous States still had a proportionate say in electing the President, much as the intention behind the US Senate. If people think democratic mob rule is the way they want to go, then let's also abolish the Senate, as the House is the legislative body that is proportioned according to population.
By the way, the Senate was originally intended to represent the interests of the individual States and Senators were elected by the individual State legislatures. The House was to represent the interests of the People and were elected by popular vote. This was changed in the 17th Amendment