Several Senate Democrats are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would abolish the electoral college system and replace it with a presidential election system in which the winner of the popular vote wins the race for the White House.
Reps. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Peter Welch, D-Vermont, introduced the amendment, according to a press release.
“In 2000, before the general election, I introduced a bipartisan resolution to amend the Constitution and abolish the electoral college system. I believe the time has come to retire this invention,” Durbin said, the newspaper reported. release. “The American people have the right to choose all their leaders, and I am proud to join Senators Schatz and Welch in supporting this effort to empower voters.”
What is an electoral college? How does it work?
Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) speaks after the weekly Senate luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on December 3, 2024. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“In elections, whoever gets the most votes has to win. It’s that simple,” Schatz said. “No one should have their vote counted based on where they live. The Electoral College is outdated and undemocratic. It’s time to end it.”
Welch argued that “current elections are not as representative as they should be because of an outdated and flawed Electoral College.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, blasted the proposal in a post on X as a “stunningly bad idea,” adding, “Democrats are, of course, pushing this proposal.”
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Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) arrives at the Capitol on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, for the Senate Republican leadership election. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) criticized the proposal, saying Senate Democrats wanted to “trample on the Constitution.”
President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
However, there have been elections in U.S. history where the winner of the Electoral College did not receive the popular vote.
Tim Walz retracts statement that electoral colleges ‘need to be abolished’
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shake hands after the presidential debate at Hofstra University on September 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The most recent example is President Trump’s victory in 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote but lost in the Electoral College.
Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.
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