GUEST, James asked if the citizenry could not change the electoral system, and suggested petitioning as a start.

To change the electoral system would take a constitutional amendment, which was deliberately made difficult, though possible, by the framers of the Constitution.

My recollection of the process may be flawed (and if it is someone will correct me, I know), but I believe a proposed amendment must originate in the House of Representatives. If it succeeds there (by what proportion? 2/3?), I forget whether it has to go through the Senate or not. My vague recollection is not, but I could be wrong.

I believe that the president may not veto an amendment.

Having passed the origination in the legislature, it must be submitted to the state legislatures, and only if it is ratified by a requisite proportion of the legislatures within a set time (what? 3 years?) will it become part of the Constitution.

As I said, my recollection of the process lacks a good deal of detail

But the likelihood of congress passing a proposed amendment on this subject, either
(a) to make the distribution of electoral votes proportional in each state or
(b) to abolish the Electoral College altogether
is, to my mind, slim, nil, and none.

I would support option (a) above.

I would oppose (b), because it would replace one evil with another. Under (b) the voters of the less heavily populated portions of the country would be just as effectively disenfranchised as CarolC feels she is under the present provisions. The big states of New York, California, Michigan, Illinois and so forth would run away with things, and the residents of Wyoming, say, and South Dakota and Mississippi would have no effective voice in the choice of the president.


Dave Oesterreich