Having failed to generate enough support to abolish the Electoral College through a constitutional amendment, the institution's detractors are now looking to the courts to upend it.
A new lawsuit, spearheaded by Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig and filed in four states, charges that the "Winner-take-all" element of how states divvy up their Electoral College votes is unconstitutional.
"Under the winner-take-all system, U.S. citizens have been denied their constitutional right to an equal vote in presidential elections," said David Boies, an attorney who represented former Vice President Al Gore in the contested 2000 election and is leading the current litigation against the Electoral College.
In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, in which President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College while losing the national popular vote, there were widespread calls to upend America's 2-century-old electoral system.
National Popular Vote, an organization dedicated to moving America away from the current Electoral College process, has worked toward eliminating the Electoral College through an amendment to the Constitution or a state compact.
As Heritage Foundation legal expert Hans von Spakovsky wrote in a paper on the Electoral College: "In creating the basic architecture of the American government, the Founders struggled to satisfy each state's demand for greater representation while attempting to balance popular sovereignty against the risk posed to the minority from majoritarian rule."
Our Electoral College system has become more democratic over time, with all states relying on a popular vote to select electors rather than state legislatures.
http://dailysignal.com/2018/03/04/progressive-activists-look-courts-undermine-electoral-college/
A new lawsuit, spearheaded by Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig and filed in four states, charges that the "Winner-take-all" element of how states divvy up their Electoral College votes is unconstitutional.
"Under the winner-take-all system, U.S. citizens have been denied their constitutional right to an equal vote in presidential elections," said David Boies, an attorney who represented former Vice President Al Gore in the contested 2000 election and is leading the current litigation against the Electoral College.
In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, in which President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College while losing the national popular vote, there were widespread calls to upend America's 2-century-old electoral system.
National Popular Vote, an organization dedicated to moving America away from the current Electoral College process, has worked toward eliminating the Electoral College through an amendment to the Constitution or a state compact.
As Heritage Foundation legal expert Hans von Spakovsky wrote in a paper on the Electoral College: "In creating the basic architecture of the American government, the Founders struggled to satisfy each state's demand for greater representation while attempting to balance popular sovereignty against the risk posed to the minority from majoritarian rule."
Our Electoral College system has become more democratic over time, with all states relying on a popular vote to select electors rather than state legislatures.
http://dailysignal.com/2018/03/04/progressive-activists-look-courts-undermine-electoral-college/
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