It’s Time for a Constitutional Amendment Abolishing the Electoral College

The United States of America has a long history of improving its electoral system to be more democratic through constitutional amendments and making new laws. From giving Black men the right to vote with the 14th Constitutional Amendment, to giving women the right to vote with the 19th Constitutional Amendment, to having Senators be directly elected by the people with the 17th constitutional amendment, to prohibiting the Jim Crow laws of the south that made voting very difficult for Black people with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to giving 18 year olds the right to vote with the 26th constitutional amendment. The electoral college is another undemocratic relic of the founding of this country that today negates the votes of millions of Americans and greatly enhances the electoral importance of a handful of swing states. It’s time the United States evolved its democracy even more - it is time for a constitutional amendment abolishing the electoral college. 

There are two relatively recent cases where the presidential candidate was the winner of the popular vote but lost the Electoral College vote, the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, and the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. While the 2000 contest was amazingly close, in the latter case, candidate Clinton won the popular vote by about 2.9 million votes. 

One argument for the Electoral College is that it benefits states with small populations, often largely rural states, including by encouraging Presidential candidates to campaign there.  However, the existence of the Senate, with its 2 members for each state, already provides these small states with enormous political clout in the U.S. Congress. And because the Electoral College system has reduced presidential candidates to fighting over what in 2024 was 7 swing states - Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin - the Electoral College system has been swaying the direction of the presidential election and its campaigns its own undemocratic way. 

What is more, electoral vote allocation to each state, which is based on the size of each state’s total Congressional delegation, is very undemocratic. In California, which has 54 electoral votes and 22.1 million registered voters (in 2023), that amounts to about 409,526 voters per electoral vote. Meanwhile South Dakota had 597,680 registered voters in 2023 and 3 electoral votes, or 199,226 voters per electoral vote. 

The Electoral College’s empowerment of small states and swing states is undemocratic overkill.

The Electoral College system also essentially disenfranchises voters who vote in a state that solidly supports the opposing party. But if there were no Electoral College, your vote counts no matter where you live. 

It is conspicuous that there are two recent cases of presidential elections where the candidate who won the popular vote lost the electoral college vote. Before 2000, the last time that occurred was in 1888. It may be given the modern demographics of the U.S. that the undemocratic character of the Electoral College is coming to the fore. 

A 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 63% of Americans want to change our current electoral system for the Presidency such that “the candidate who receives the most votes wins.” 53% of Republicans or people who lean Republican said they want to keep the Electoral College system, while 80% of Democrats or people who lean Democrat want the winner of the popular vote to be elected President. 

There is a different movement by states to make our President be elected by the popular vote – the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under this system, a state that enacted this law would award its electoral votes to the winner of the total U.S. popular vote for President. This system is based on Article II of the Constitution which states that the States shall determine how they award their electoral votes for President. So far, 18 states have enacted this law, totaling 209 electoral votes. If enough states totaling 270 electoral votes enact the law, the compact will take effect. 

However, pursuing that way abandons our country’s tradition of amending the Constitution  to make our country’s electoral system more democratic. A constitutional amendment abolishing the electoral college would be a decisive law change to our founding document, establishing clearly our new preference for a one-person-one-vote electoral system for the Presidency. 

The enormous challenge facing a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College is obtaining the support of two-thirds of the members of both the House and Senate and 38 states would have to ratify the amendment. Since the Republican party has won two recent Presidential elections because of the Electoral College, and because 53% of Republicans support the Electoral College system, its members may be disinclined to support such a constitutional amendment.

Given that, what our country needs is a concerted political movement with the goal of a constitutional amendment that would abolish the electoral college. Supporters of this change to our constitution and our electoral system should put forward a flood of articles and opinion pieces in the news media articulating the arguments for why the electoral college system is a relic of the undemocratic founding of this country and far too undemocratic for our modern United States.  It’s time for a constitutional amendment abolishing the electoral college.

David Fine

Freelance Writer

Good articles on this topic 

It's Time to Abolish the Electoral College - Brookings