The Nation: A Vote to Close Down the College

Thomas Jefferson called it "the most dangerous blot on our Constitution." In the past 200 years, more than 500 proposals have been made by Congress to reform it. Last week, for the first time in this century, a President put the weight of his office behind the notion that it should be abolished altogether. Jimmy Carter proposed that the arcane and archaic Electoral College be replaced with direct, popular-vote presidential elections. He called the change "an issue of overriding Government significance."

Since 1789, Americans have been electing their Presidents by a Constitutional procedure designed to help preserve the rights of the individual...

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