Senator Barbara Boxer is leaving the Senate, but before she goes she wants to do away with the Electoral Collage.
Boxer announced Tuesday that she will introduce a bill to start choosing the President by popular vote instead of the current system where a dozen or so swing states have all the power. Via The Press Enterprise:
Under the Constitution, the winner of the electoral vote, not the popular vote, becomes president. There have been a handful of times in U.S. history in which the popular vote winner did not capture the Oval Office.
“This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency,” Boxer said in a news release. “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts.”
Meanwhile, President-elect Trump is defending the Electoral College, which he won despite not winning the popular vote.
The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2016
This, of course, is much different than what Trump said just 4 years ago when he thought Mitt Romney won the popular vote, but lost the election.
This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012
The proposed bill probably won’t pass as the Senate is controlled by Republicans – who will love the Electoral College until they are on the losing end of it – and it would need three-fourths of all states to ratify it because it would amend the Constitution.
In the meantime, if you want to have any say in who your next President is, be sure to move to Florida or Pennsylvania.
