At a happy hour for young professionals Tuesday night in Washington D.C., former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley intimated that he supports abolishing the electoral college.
When confronted at Baby Wale, a bar in the nation’s capital, by college activist Colin Byrd, 21, as to whether he would support a constitutional amendment to ditch the electoral college in favor of winner via popular vote, O’Malley hinted that he indeed would.
O’Malley, one of five Democrats currently running for the party’s presidential nomination, pointed to him signing into law the National Popular Vote bill, which made Maryland the first state to support the anti-electoral college movement.
“Well, as a matter of fact, our state — my state, became the first state to sign on to the popular vote movement, which says all of our electoral votes go toward whoever the winner was of the popular vote,” O’Malley told Byrd, a student at the University of Maryland. “So our state, Maryland, actual led in that movement.”
As of now, ten states along with the District of Columbia, have signed on to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which, if activated, would trigger presidential elections through popular vote rather than the electoral college.
O’Malley signed the legislation to make Maryland the first state to take such an action in April, 2007. Among other 2016 candidates, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee also exhibited support for the change, having signed onto the pact in July, 2013 during his governorship.
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