Elections

Dem Files Amendment To Ban Electoral College

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Phillip Stucky Political Reporter
Font Size:

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee formally filed a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday that would end the Electoral College if enacted, according to USA Today.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton earned a 2.5 million vote lead in the popular vote, but a vast majority of votes comes from deep blue states like California and New York. Even so, Democrats nationwide are calling for the end of the constitutionally-enshrined Electoral College.

“For the second time in recent memory, and for the fifth time in our history, we have a president-elect, who lost the popular vote,” Cohen told USA Today. “The Electoral College is an antiquated system that was established to prevent citizens from directly electing our nation’s president, yet that notion is antithetical to our understanding of democracy. In our country, ‘We the People’ are supposed to determine who represents us in elective office.”

The filing is nothing more than a political ploy, since the motion would need to obtain two thirds approval in both the House and the Senate, then the motion would have to be ratified by 38 of the 50 states, according to the Constitution.

Reasoning behind installing the Electoral College was due to the lack of fast communication that made it nearly impossible for average citizens to know enough about the candidates to make an informed decision, Cohen contends.

“The development of mass media and the Internet, however, has made information about presidential candidates easily accessible to U.S. citizens across the country and around the world,” Cohen said. “Today, citizens have a far better chance of knowing about out-of-state presidential candidates than knowing about presidential electors from their home states. Most people don’t even know who their electors are.”

Democrats are opposing the results of the election in many different ways, with some members of the Clinton campaign appearing to back a move by Green Party candidate Jill Stein to recount the votes in states that Clinton lost, such as Wisconsin, who started their recount Thursday.

Follow Phillip On Twitter

Have a Tip? Let us Know

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.