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President Obama — Obama said he supported eliminating the Electoral College as a Senate candidate during a WTTW television debate against Republican Alan Keyes in 2004.

When asked, “Yes or no, eliminate the Electoral College?” Obama responded, “Yes … I think, at this point, this is breaking down.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — Shortly after the 2000 election, as a newly-minted Senator-elect, Clinton called for direct elections of the president. She argued the country has changed since the Electoral College was put in place.

“We are a very different country than we were 200 years ago,” Clinton said at a news conference.

“I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people and to me, that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president.”

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) — Five days after the 2000 election, Schumer called the U.S. voting system "antediluvian" and called for a study of simplified procedures. He, too, favored scrapping the Electoral College but said three-fourths of the states would never ratify an amendment.

“It won’t happen,” he said, according to The Associated Press.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) — The minority whip acted as soothsayer for the split-ticket election results in 2000.

A week before the Nov. 7 election that year, Durbin announced his plan to introduce legislation to do away with the Electoral College process, calling it a “dinosaur.”

"Our current system disenfranchises millions of voters who happen to vote for the losing presidential candidate in their state," Durbin said. “The electoral college is an 18th century invention that never should have survived to the 21st century.”

He announced the proposal with then-Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), who is now Obama’s Secretary of Transportation.

Former Vice President Al Gore — After the 2000 election, Gore continued to support the current system. But Gore reversed course during this year’s Democratic National Convention, criticizing the process that ignores voters outside of swing states and cost him the election.

“I’ve seen how these states are written off and ignored, and people are effectively disenfranchised in the presidential race. And I really do now think it is time to change that,” Gore said on Current TV, an independent cable network that he co-founded.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and 29 Democratic cosponsors signed on to a bill during the current Congress that calls for the direct election of the president and vice president.

“The Electoral College is a relic, a throwback largely due to the slave-owners who dominated the politics of our new nation at its beginning,” Jackson wrote in a 2008 editorial.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y), the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, this week proposed a constitutional amendment that would give 29 extra electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/264347-obama-clinton-backed-reforms-to-electoral-college-after-bush-v-gore

bcspace wrote:The electoral college is actually a check and balance on a few large states controlling the rest of the nation. I'd even go so far as to state that states divvying up their electoral votes have broken this critical cog.

bcspace wrote:The electoral college is actually a check and balance on a few large states controlling the rest of the nation. I'd even go so far as to state that states divvying up their electoral votes have broken this critical cog.

President Obama — Obama said he supported eliminating the Electoral College as a Senate candidate during a WTTW television debate against Republican Alan Keyes in 2004.

When asked, “Yes or no, eliminate the Electoral College?” Obama responded, “Yes … I think, at this point, this is breaking down.”

Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y)[/b], the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, this week proposed a constitutional amendment that would give 29 extra electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.

US Rep Steve Israel Announces Legislation to Reform Electoral College in Future Elections

Huntington NY—Congressman Steve Israel (D-Huntington) announced a new proposal that would reform the Electoral College by awarding 29 bonus votes to the winner of the popular vote. Israel introduced a constitutional amendment, which would only take effect one year after ratification and would have no effect on the 2012 election. Some have speculated about the possibility of a tie in the coming election, which would result in the Congress breaking the tie for president and vice-president.

Steve Israel said, “The election for president should be an election for the whole country, not just the swing states. Obviously I have no intention of changing the rules for the campaign that’s underway now, but believe that we would be better served in the future if presidential candidates had an incentive to campaign in places like New York and Texas as well as swing states like New Hampshire and Iowa. By giving a bonus vote of 29 electoral votes, swing states would remain important, but states like New York would have a meaningful voice too.”

Others have called for similar reforms in the past, including the 20th Century Fund Task Force on Reform of the Presidential Election Process in 1978. Rep. Israel’s legislation differs from the Task Force’s proposal in the number of bonus votes allotted. The Task Force awarded 102 votes, with the stated purpose “making virtually certain that the candidate who receives the largest number of popular votes would be elected president.” Rep. Israel’s bonus votes allotted would only be 29—enough to break a tie or a very close election, but not enough to undermine the influence of small swing states in the Electoral College.

Historically, the winner of the popular vote has lost election only four times, John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and George Bush in 2000. Israel’s proposal would only have changed the outcome of two of those elections: the elections of 2000 and 1876 were both decided by less than 29 electoral votes. The constitutional amendment would require passage by two-thirds of the House and Senate along with ratification by three-fourths of the states. The resolution would take effect one year following the ratification of the amendment, allowing time for presidential campaigns to adapt to new election rules.


http://israel.house.gov/index.php?optio ... s-releases