THE CONGRESS: The People's Choice

Three times in U.S. history a presidential candidate has won a plurality of the popular vote only to lose the election.* Reason: the archaic electoral-college system, an unhappy late-hour compromise device adopted when the Constitution was written and the subject of steady fire ever since. Last week, by a bipartisan majority of 64 to 27, the Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment which would change all that. It would divide the electoral votes of each state according to the popular vote each candidate polled.

Who Gains? The debate put Senators into a...

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