Free Republic

A proposed ballot initiative being circulated to change how California awards its presidential electoral votes is so irksome to Sen. Dianne Feinstein that she is vowing to change the U.S. Constitution. Democrats say the so-called Presidential Electoral Reform Act -- which would throw out the Golden State's winner-take-all system -- is nothing but a ruse to win the Republicans the White House by assuring them at least 20 of California's 55 electoral votes. "I think this effort to essentially skew the presidential system ... would directly change the election," Feinstein said in an interview. So California's senior senator said she...

Amendment would provide for direct popular election Dateline: December 27, 2004 Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has announced that she will introduce legislation to abolish the Electoral College system and provide for direct popular election of the President and Vice President when the Senate convenes for the 109th Congress in January. “The Electoral College is an anachronism and the time has come to bring our democracy into the 21st Century,” Sen. Feinstein said in a press release. “During the founding years of the Republic, the Electoral College may have been a suitable system, but today it is flawed and amounts to...

As the US presidential election draws near, it helps to reflect upon the peculiar institution called the Electoral College in order to prepare for and understand the possibility that the next president might not reflect that popular political will of the electorate. This system, which is provided for in Article II of the constitution and was further refined by the passage of the 12th Amendment, has guided the selection of presidents and vice presidents since the late 18th century and has only been modified once - in 1961, is one of the idiosyncrasies of the US political system, a remnant...