Electoral College losing appeal among American voters
- Increasingly, adult voters favor electing their president by popular vote
- GOP support for moving away is the highest it’s been in years
- The U.S. came closest to abolishing the Electoral College 55 years ago
FILE – The certification of Electoral College votes for the state of Arizona is unsealed during a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to confirm the electoral votes cast in November’s election, at the Capitol, Jan 6, 2021. Members of Congress have officially objected to the results in four of the last six presidential elections, a partisan practice that has been legal for over a century but became much more fraught after a violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol last year. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
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(NewsNation) — About 65% of Americans say the president should be elected by popular vote rather than the Electoral College, according to an updated report from the Pew Research Center.
Although adult voters felt similarly last year, their support for the popular vote is up slightly.
Those sentiments vary in their intensity across party lines, however.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are more likely – 82% – than Republican and Republican-leaning voters – 47% – to get behind the idea of a popular-vote system, according to Pew’s research.
Still, GOP support for moving away from the Electoral College is the highest it’s been in years. About 27% of Republicans supported the idea in the wake of the 2016 election and 37% in 2021.
Talk about abolishing the Electoral College is hardly new, but it is gaining traction. The issue was thrust into the spotlight in 2000 and 2016, when both George W. Bush and Donald Trump respectively won the presidential election, despite losing the popular vote.
In 2016, even though millions more people cumulatively voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump in California, Pennsylvania and Texas, the Democratic Party was only awarded the electors appointed in California.
Trump won the state popular vote in Pennsylvania and Texas, meaning the Republican Party was awarded three more total electors than Democrats, the National Archives explains.
There have been 700 attempts to abolish or repair the Electoral College, according to a 2020 Washington Post report.
The closest the country has come to abolishing the Electoral College was nearly 56 years ago, when segregationist George Wallace’s campaign came close to throwing the 1968 election, according to the Washington Post.
