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Past Attempts
at Reform
The rules of the Electoral College are not set
in stone. Thankfully,
this has been recognized several times before.
While amendments are rare, they do happen.
Twenty-seven proposals have survived the difficult amendment
process, and with much less popular approval than the movement for
direct election can pride itself in.
Over the history of our country, there have been at least 700
(and anywhere up to 1,000) proposed amendments to modify or abolish
the Electoral College, making it the subject of more attempted
reforms than any other subject.
These are a few of those attempted reforms.
1950: The Lodge-Gossett Amendment, named
for its co-sponsors Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) and Rep. Ed
Gossett (D-TX), was a classic example of a reform plan known as proportional
allocation. The plan was introduced in the 81st Congress
(1949-1950) as an amendment proposal that would abolish the
Electoral College as it was known, replacing it with a proportional
electoral vote.
In this case, electors and the college would
remain in place, but electoral votes would be allocated to
presidential tickets in a manner directly proportional to the
popular votes each ticket received in the states. The proposal
was amended in the Senate to also require a 40% threshold of
electoral votes for a ticket to be elected to the Presidency and
Vice Presidency. If no one received such a threshold, the
Senate and the House of Representatives, in a joint session, would
then choose among the top two presidential candidates and their
running mates.
The Lodge-Gossett Amendment passed the Senate with a super
majority by a vote of 64-27, but died a bitter death in the
House. Opposition in the House came primarily from liberal
groups who, if there were to be a proportional plan, preferred it to
be extended also to individual state turnout in comparison to
national voter turnout.
1956: Hubert Humphrey's S. J. 152 was a
new, unique proposal of reform introduced in the 84th
Congress. In this plan, the Electoral College would be
abolished as known, but the then 531 electoral votes would still be
put to use. Two electoral votes would be awarded to the
candidate winning the overall popular vote in each of the then 48
states voting for president. The remaining 435 would then be
divided nationally in proportion to the nationwide popular
vote. The proposal passed the House of Representatives, but
later died in the Senate.
1969: This proposal came to be after the
1968 Presidential election, in which American Independent candidate
George Wallace managed to obtain 46 electoral votes, generating
concern over the possibilities of contingent elections and electoral
vote-trading for political concessions. In the 91st Congress,
Rep. Emanuel Celler introduced the proposal, which would abolish the
Electoral College in favor of a direct popular election with a 40%
threshold and a runoff if no threshold was achieved. The bill
was wildly popular in the House, passing 338-70, yet failed to pass
in the Senate due to a filibuster. Read more about the 1969 attempt
1979: After the close election between
Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford in 1976, Senator Birch Bayh introduced
a proposal in the 96th Congress to abolish the Electoral College and
replace it with direct election. The measure failed the Senate
by a vote of 51-48 in 1979. Because of its failure in that
chamber, the House decided not to vote on its version of the
proposal.
1992 & 1997: Hearings were conducted
to consider reform possibilities, but no proposal left the committee chambers
2004: Colorado proposes, by ballot
measure 36, to amend the way it allocates its electoral votes.
Instead of remaining a winner-take-all state, the proposal, if
passed, would have changed the state to proportional
allocation.
NY Times
Boston Globe
2004: Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. introduces
the first proposal for Electoral College reform since 1979.
HJR 109 proposes a majority direct election of president, and is currently
residing in the House
Judiciary Committee.
*Only two proposals involving the Electoral College have
ever reached the ratification stage, but both passed (the 12th
and 23rd Amendments).
The
Case for Reform
Electoral
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