Though it is not expected to gain traction in the current Congress, a Constitutional Amendment is being introduced in the U.S. Senate this week to abolish the Electoral College. Current presidential candidates are beginning to talk more and more about abolition or reform of the Electoral College system of presidential election in favor of a system of election by popular vote. There is also currently a movement at the state level called The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact whereby states would agree to award electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote.
Strong opinions are held on both sides of this issue. Defenders of the Electoral College seek to prevent urban areas of the nation eclipsing more rural ones in representation. Those seeking a change in our system wish to see the candidate with the most votes become President and to prevent further instances of elections like 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and most recently 2016, where that was not the case.
If you find yourself wanting to learn more about this topic, the MVCC Library has some resources that will help. Here are some items in the collection about the Electoral College system. We also have a couple of databases that are very useful for researching controversial topics such as this. Have a look at CQ Researcher and SIRS Researcher and do a search for “electoral college”. The graphic shown above is from SIRS Researcher.