Electoral College reform was a hot topic in the days and weeks following the 2016 general election.
There was some talk about flawed execution of the current system and its racist origins.
But even more fundamentally, objections were raised to the very concept of allowing the Electoral College to deny the White House to the winner of the popular vote. An opinion piece in Time said voters should threaten to withhold federal taxes in protest. Allegations were made that the Electoral College is unconstitutional and should be challenged in court.
Bu there hasn’t been much attention paid to the tax protest or lawsuit ideas lately, from what I can tell.
Getting a sufficient number state legislatures to endorse the National Popular Vote National Popular Vote Interstate Compact has been regarded as the most justifiable and feasible means of reform, as discussed at Daily Kos a couple of months ago.
One observer even more recently claimed “we’re incredibly close to replacing the Electoral College.” But that assertion seems questionable. It’s not clear there’s even a serious effort underway. National Popular Vote Inc. — an advocacy and education organization with the sole purpose of getting the compact approved — isn’t even keeping its website current. For example, recent action in the Connecticut and Oregon legislatures isn’t reflected on the status page. More important, most of the remaining support would have to come from states where the majority of legislators have shown little interest in establishing a National Popular Vote to elect the president.
Wikipedia has an updated entry on the status of efforts to enact the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact:
en.wikipedia.org/…
The apparently dismal prospects for success are noted:
Psephologist Nate Silver wrote that, as swing states are unlikely to support a compact that reduces their influence, the compact cannot succeed without adoption by "red states". As of May 2017 all the states that have adopted the compact are "blue states", ranking within the 14 strongest vote shares for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Election.
Are there persuasive arguments and plausible lobbying campaigns to end the Electoral College in the Republican-controlled legislatures where support is needed to establish the National Popular Vote? (Of course, this is just months after they’ve just seen their party take control of all branches of the federal government because of the Electoral College.)
If not, should we just resign ourselves to living with the Electoral College for the foreseeable future?
Thanks, in advance, to anyone who has insight to share.