Video by Fiona O’Flynn
Interactive by Harry Clarke
Story by Kayla Higgins
61 per cent of Americans want to abolish the Electoral College, according to a new poll by Gallup.
The Electoral College, established in the Constitution by The Founding Fathers, is a system that dictates the President and the Vice President of the United States by counting of the electoral votes by Congress.
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Interactive: timeline detailing the history of the Electoral College (Harry Clarke/RSJ)
Consisting of 538 electors, a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the next President, with each state being allocated a certain amount of votes.
Three in five Americans would prefer to replace the Electoral College with a popular vote system, meaning that the candidate that receives the most total votes nationwide is the winner.
The current system has been widely criticized for distorting voter intentions. “Distortions of the electoral college are becoming harder and harder to tolerate,” said Patrice Dutil, political science professor at Ryerson University. “A lot of people in the various states find themselves ignored, because their states typically vote a certain way. If you’re a Democrat in Montana, for example, nobody cares.”
Democrats often favour abolishing the Electoral College, while Republicans campaign for keeping the current system.
Amending the Constitution in order to abolish the Electoral College system requires support from two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as three-quarters of all 50 states.
The polarization among partisans on the issue does not call for an amendment to happen any time soon.
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