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Washington, DC - U.S. Rep. Gene Green (D-Houston) joined by Reps. Brain Baird (D-WA) and Bill Delahunt (D-MA) reintroduced a Constitutional Amendment (HJ Res. 8) to abolish the Electoral College, noting that this should be the last time electoral ballots are counted in a joint session of Congress. Green continues to push for direct presidential elections where every vote counts.
“Hopefully today will be the last joint session in our history for counting electoral votes. Every citizen’s vote should count in America, not just the votes of the partisan insiders making up the Electoral College,” Green said. “The electoral college was only justified when communications were poor, literacy was low, and voters lacked information about out-of-state candidates. Today’s voters are not out of touch and the Electoral College is out of date.”
Under the Electoral College system, Green has pointed out, presidential candidates visit states like Texas, New York and California only to raise money, not to address issues important to the election and forces presidential campaigns to focus only on a few swing states. Green also emphasized that all states polling solidly for one candidate or the other offer no incentive for Presidential candidates to spend time or resources in those states.
“The electoral college creates bad incentives,” added Green. “The media essentially creates voter apathy by telling the majority of voters that the election in their state has been decided months – or even years – in advance. The unfortunate effect is reduced turnout for presidential and many other elections. Under direct election, however, states have an incentive to raise turnout to increase their own influence in national elections.”
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