Schatz looks to end Electoral College

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced a constitutional amendment Tuesday to abolish the Electoral College system and restore democracy by allowing the direct election of presidents through popular vote alone.

“In an election, the person who gets the most votes should win. It’s that simple,” said Schatz. “No one’s vote should count for more based on where they live. The Electoral College is outdated and it’s undemocratic. It’s time to end it.”

In all but five presidential elections, the winner of the election received the most votes. Two of those five times came in the last 19 years, handing the presidency to candidates the majority of voters rejected. A handful of states now determine the leader for all 50 states, regardless of each candidate’s final vote tally.

A zip code should not silence some voters while amplifying others, according to a press release. Schatz’s constitutional amendment would address this inequality by abolishing the outdated Electoral College system.

Specifically, the constitutional amendment would provide for the direct election of the president and vice president of the United States by a popular vote among voters in each state, territory, and the District of Columbia.

Last month, Colorado became the latest state to join a national plan to bypass the Electoral College by agreeing to allocate its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the nationwide popular vote. Other states that have agreed to do the same include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawai‘i, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and California, as well as the District of Columbia.

“Every American should know that their vote counts equally no matter what state they live in, and that’s why we need a more democratic system that guarantees one person, one vote,” Gillibrand said. “The Electoral College has distorted the outcome of elections and disenfranchised millions of voters, and I think that’s wrong. I believe that it’s time to get rid of the Electoral College, and I am ready to fight in Congress and around the country to pass this Constitutional Amendment to do that.”