There has been much discussion in recent years about abolishing the Electoral College. #OTD 51 years ago, the US House approved an amendment 338-70 to abolish the EC and establish a two-round popular vote system. I created this map to show the partisan/regional breakdown. (1/7)
In the 1968 election, Richard Nixon won 301 electoral votes (56%), but only won 43.4% of the popular vote, beating Hubert Humphrey by 0.7%. After the similarly close 1960 election, this created concern about the Electoral College and spurred reform. (2/7)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Unit…
The Bayh-Celler amendment would have established a two-round popular vote system. The party who received the highest national popular vote would win the presidency if they won at least 40%. If no party won 40%, a runoff election would be held. (3/7)
library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/docu…
Following its passage in the House, Nixon endorsed the amendment and encourage the Senate to adopt it. The New York Times reported 30 state legislatures would likely support it, six were undecided, six leaned opposed, and eight were solidly opposed. (4/7)
nytimes.com/1969/10/08/arc…
In August 1970, the Senate passed the amendment out of committee 11-6. Senator Bayh believed the amendment was a dozen Senators short and appealed to Nixon to persuade Republican senators to support it, but Nixon declined to make any further appeals. (5/7)
nytimes.com/1970/04/24/arc…
In September 1970, the Senate commenced debate on the amendment, but it was soon filibustered. Conservative senators in both parties argued it would diminish their states' influence. Two cloture votes failed (54-36 and 53-34), and the amendment died. (6/7)
nytimes.com/1970/09/18/arc…
As shown in my map above, and as polling has indicated, support for abolishing the Electoral College used to be bipartisan, but that is not the case today. One hopes that we will get to a point where support for abolition becomes bipartisan again. (7/7)
fivethirtyeight.com/features/aboli…
@fairvote @CommonCause @jessewegman @darrwest @geoffreyvs @MilesParks @seanilling @Taniel @SenhorRaposa @JMilesColeman @NilesGApol @cinyc9 @MaronAoriak @ElectionMapsCo @nickroberts317 @rudnicknoah @HWLavelleMaps @xxxneonslavexxx @NathnJordn @Uncrewed @djbj34
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