Roll Call: A group is suing two red states and two blue states to change the Electoral College system. Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig and David Boies, who served as former Vice President Al Gore’s lawyer in Bush v. … Continue reading
Category Archives: electoral college
Ed Zelinsky blogs. … Continue reading
William Josephson has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: How to elect the President was the second most debated issue at the 1787 constitutional convention. The last moment Electoral College compromise between congressional election of the President … Continue reading
AP: Connecticut’s General Assembly has voted to join a group of states that want to pool their Electoral College votes for the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. The Senate on Saturday voted 21-14 to enter the National Popular … Continue reading
Politico: President Donald Trump on Thursday voiced support for doing away with the Electoral College for presidential elections in favor of a popular vote because the latter would be “much easier to win.” The president’s support for a popular-vote presidential … Continue reading
Derek Muller: David Boies is leading an effort to challenge the winner-take-all method that most states use when awarding presidential electors. There are different ways states might award electors (which I used to project alternative electoral outcomes in 2016). Brenden Cline in 2017 nicely summarized the … Continue reading
Release: A coalition of law firms led by David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, and The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) today announced the filing of four landmark lawsuits challenging the winner-take-all method states use to allocate … Continue reading
Ned Foley for USA Today: This point is different from the one about Hillary Clinton winning almost 3 million more votes nationally than Trump. That much-mentioned truth is irrelevant to how the Electoral College is supposed to work. It would matter if there were any … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
Tara Ross is out with a new book-length defense of the electoral college, with the subhead: “How the Founders Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule.” … Continue reading
Here’s the paper behind the report I mentioned yesterday, finding that one out of every three presidential elections where the popular vote margin is within 3% will feature a mismatch between the popular vote and the electoral college. … Continue reading
Aaron Blake reminds Democrats that if the 2016 election had been up to a national popular vote, campaign strategies would have been very different. … Continue reading
A team at Covington has started a new organization – Making Every Vote Count — pressing for a national popular vote for President. Sam Wang was on CNN this morning talking about some related new research, finding that one out … Continue reading
Two events with great lineups from a new group headed by Reed Hundt dedicated to passing the national popular vote. “Improving American Democracy” (Oct. 7 at Stanford, use link to RSVP). “The Need for Presidential Selection Reform” (Oct. 12, Washington … Continue reading
Inaugural Michelle Goldberg NYT column: There are ways out. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact — a plan in which states agree to award all their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner — could circumvent the Electoral College … Continue reading
Bob Bauer: There is more to be said about the complexities of a reform initiative like the one Professor Lessig has advanced, but the evaluation requires attention in the first instance to the question of the various ways in the … Continue reading
Post: Today, the non-profit that I founded, EqualCitizens.US, announced it would crowdfund support for two lawsuits to challenge the way votes are allocated in the Electoral College. All but two states allocate their vote according to a winner-take-all system, in which … Continue reading
Richard Primus for Take Care. … Continue reading
Colorado Independent reports. … Continue reading
The measure now moves on to the New Mexico House. … Continue reading
Weigel: Republicans in two swing states lost by President Trump in 2016 have introduced legislation that would have benefited Trump in the 2016 election, by splitting up their electoral votes by congressional districts instead of awarding them statewide. In Minnesota, Speaker … Continue reading
Ed Zelinsky blogs. … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading
Chris Geidner. … Continue reading
Steven Mazie for the Economist: The failure of the rebellion will not be more than a footnote to the 2016 presidential election. Yet it may leave an enduring legacy. The campaign waged by Mr Lessig and others encouraged electors to … Continue reading
The Fix reports. … Continue reading
Derek Muller for the WSJ: The 538 members of the Electoral College convened Monday and cast a majority of their votes for Donald Trump for president and Mike Pence for vice president. When Congress convenes on Jan. 6 to count … Continue reading
Politico: The seven so-called “faithless” votes cast by members of the Electoral College on Monday may go down as a noisy footnote to an otherwise chaotic 2016 election. But they also represent a historic breach between electors and the candidates … Continue reading
Nate Cohn for NYT’s The UpShot. … Continue reading
Listen (or read). … Continue reading
Release: In a victory for Ohio voters and the Ohio Constitution, Ohio 50th District State Representative Christina Hagan (R-Alliance) has belatedly resigned as a member of the presidential Electoral College. The Electoral College is slated to meet at noon today, … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Chris Geidner: The battle over Monday’s electoral college vote is the beginning, not the end. A larger campaign to undermine the legitimacy — and constitutionality — of Donald Trump’s presidency is likely just getting underway. Discomfort with Donald Trump before … Continue reading
Everyone who condemned threats of violence earlier coming during Trump rallies needs to condemn this. Deplorable: On Monday, members of the Electoral College will cast their historic votes for the next president of the United States. In the meantime, they … Continue reading
News from Ohio: Two Stark County residents have filed a complaint against Republican state Rep. Christina Hagan, looking to keep her from voting for president as a member of the Electoral College. The complaint, filed in Stark County Court of … Continue reading
Video with Jerry Goldfeder. … Continue reading
Rob Yablon: With the Electoral College set to vote in just a few days, the debate over the role of Presidential Electors has reached a fever pitch. Should this year’s Electors follow longstanding norms and rubberstamp their state’s popular … Continue reading
Yeah that will do the trick. … Continue reading
Marcia Coyle: “Calif. and Wash. state electors’ challenges now before 9th and 10th circuits. Look for weekend #SCOTUS action soon after decision.” … Continue reading
NY Post. … Continue reading
Here it is. … Continue reading
At CNBC: Once again, we have a popular vote loser taking the White House, and once again we have criticism and fights over the existence of the Electoral College. The reason for why we have the Electoral College is poorly … Continue reading
Politico: The Republican National Committee is overseeing an expansive whip operation designed to lock down Donald Trump’s Electoral College majority and ensure that the 306 Republican electors cast their votes for the president-elect. Two RNC sources familiar with the effort … Continue reading
FOX31: A U.S. District Court judge shot down a lawsuit filed by two Democratic members of Colorado’s Electoral College who want to vote for someone other than Hillary Clinton. It may sound counterintuitive, but it is part of a last-ditch effort to … Continue reading
NPR: Amid news of possible Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, a top Hillary Clinton adviser is publicly casting support for a push by some members of the Electoral College to receive an intelligence briefing ahead of their formal … Continue reading
Listen at Slate Amicus. … Continue reading
WSJ law blog. … Continue reading
Christopher Suprun NYT oped: I am a Republican presidential elector, one of the 538 people asked to choose officially the president of the United States. Since the election, people have asked me to change my vote based on policy disagreements … Continue reading
More pie-in-the-sky from Lessig. If one were serious about pushing this argument, the time to advance it is not to try to change the outcome of an election already conducted. So go ahead Larry, and try to get this resolved … Continue reading
Ed Zelinsky blogs. … Continue reading