GOP Leaders United in Defense of Electoral College

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Human Events:

DALLAS—One political controversy that came up repeatedly during the meeting of Republican state chairmen here May 15 to 17 was the latest effort by liberals nationwide to scrap the Electoral College in favor of popular election of the President. Almost to a person, GOP party leaders are adamantly opposed to the proposed change and, in fact, several of them told HUMAN EVENTS they hope to put the party on record in its opposition at the next meeting of the Republican National Committee in the spring.

The cause of amending the U.S. Constitution to replace the Electoral College and instead adopt election of the President by popular vote is an old one. Clearly believing that they can turn out voters in their historic bastions in greater numbers than their political opponents, liberals have pushed this change for several generations. Conservatives, respecting both tradition and the rights of states, have historically supported maintaining the form of electing Presidents crafted by the Founding Fathers.

But what is unique about the latest assault on the Electoral College is that, instead of attempting to abolish it through a constitutional amendment, supporters of the popular vote scheme are instead pursuing what California’s GOP National Committeeman Shawn Steel dubbed “a liberal attempt to end-run the Constitution.”

Under this scheme, state legislatures would pass legislation that would bind them to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote—even if the candidate that got the most votes nationally did not carry that individual state. In short, this would be a de facto popular vote for President—and done without amending the Constitution.

So far, seven states and the District of Columbia (with a combined 77 electoral votes) have enacted laws that do precisely this. Should similar laws be enacted in states with an additional 193 electoral votes, de facto popular election of the President will be achieved.