DEDHAM, Massachusetts — Brianna Wu, candidate for U.S. Congress in Massachusetts District 8, today announced her support for abolishing the Electoral College.
“The Electoral College is archaic and unnecessary in the 21st Century,” said Wu. ‘One person, one vote should be the rule, and that can be instituted by the winner of the popular vote determining the winner of the election for the presidency and vice-presidency, as it does for every other elected office in the nation.”
Wu stated that one of the main reasons the Electoral College was written into the U.S. Constitution was to avoid a president being chosen by an uninformed and ignorant electorate due to a lack of information. “In the 1780’s, communication across the nation was slow to permeate. It was understandable then. This is the 21st Century. We can communicate across the world in seconds. This justification for the Electoral College is no longer valid.”
“The Electoral College enables presidential candidates to campaign in swing states, largely ignoring smaller states,” said Wu. “Presidential candidates should campaign in all fifty states, and a vote in Alabama should count as much as a vote in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or any of the other swing states. And if one candidate receives almost 3 million more votes over another candidate, then that person should be the President of the United States.”
Wu supports both a constitutional amendment and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) as methods of negating the Electoral College. The NPVIC would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would take effect when states with a total of 270 electoral votes. So far, 13 states with 181 electoral votes, including Massachusetts, have signed the bill into law. A constitutional amendment would require passage by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate and approval by 38 states.
“We need to get rid of the Electoral College as quickly as possible,” said Wu. “Since 2000 alone, we have had two presidential candidates win the popular vote but lose the electoral college. That is not how a representative democracy should work. The NPVIC is gaining momentum, and hopefully now that the Electoral College is in the public discourse in this election, it will make some progress. A constitutional amendment is possible. We have done it twenty-seven times in our history. Since 1968, polling has shown that a majority of the American people have consistently said the popular vote should determine a presidential election. The will of the people is clear.”
Wu acknowledged the difficulty of passing a constitutional amendment with a Republican controlled White House and Senate. “The fact is the Republicans see the Electoral College as a pathway to the presidency. It has worked for them twice in the last five elections. They think that Donald Trump can be re-elected in 2020 with a repeat performance of 2016 — winning the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. For them, it’s not about a fair, representative democracy, it’s about winning elections any way they can. Although Democrats are fighting to repeal the Electoral College, I think we will need a large majority of Democrats in the House and the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment. When I get to Congress, it will be one of the many important items on my agenda,” said Wu.
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