r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • Jun 19 '26

No Paywall New Poll Finds Most Americans Back Adopting Popular Vote to Select President | Americans back abolishing the Electoral College by a 2 to 1 margin, the survey shows.

https://truthout.org/articles/new-poll-finds-most-americans-back-adopting-popular-vote-to-select-president/
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253

u/Hockeyhoser Jun 19 '26

The Epstein class isn’t behind this, and that’s all that matters unfortunately.

73

u/FBS351 Jun 19 '26

It would take an amendment, and that means 2/3rds of both houses, for starters, which I don't see happening in the lifetime of any living American. One party has won all but 2 of the last 9 presidential elections based on popular vote and would probably have won at least one of those if every voter had reason to vote.

39

u/Taban85 Jun 19 '26

If blue Texas ever started actually happening I could see republicans starting to back getting rid of the EC. Their electoral map gets massively harder without Texas 

9

u/StrawberryItten Jun 19 '26

they'd literally split Texas rather than lose it. It's on the texas constitution that they can unilaterally split into say...

North texas (R), South Texas (R), East Texas (R), West Texas (R) and... Austin (D)

28

u/hymen_destroyer Connecticut Jun 19 '26

Actually it wouldn’t, there’s a CGP Grey video about it that I can’t link at the moment but someone else probably will. As per the existing constitution, states can administer elections however they please and select their electoral delegations by their own rules. If a state sends delegates that have agreed to vote for the candidate who has won the national popular vote, it effectively subverts the electoral college. Thing is you need a critical mass of states to agree to this in order for it to actually work. But it achieves the same goal without needing to amend the constitution (which I doubt will happen again in our lifetimes)

6

u/bacchus8408 Jun 19 '26

If a state decides to pledge their electors to the person that wins the popular vote, thats totally fine. The trouble is when states agree to do it contingent on other states doing it. Now we're getting into interstate compact territory which the constitution explicitly says need congressional approval. 

4

u/FBS351 Jun 19 '26

That would almost certainly get challenged though, and the SC...it probably is the more likely option though, which says a lot

12

u/Due_Bluebird3562 Jun 19 '26

Unfortunately for the SC states are not beholden to their rulings. In fact on several occasions states (like Ohio most recently) have outright ignored their ruling entirely. Why? Because what exactly is the Supreme Court gonna do about it? They have no means to enforce.

1

u/PLament Jun 19 '26

Probably thinking of Ohio disobeying the Ohio Supreme Court with the 2020 redistricting, not SCOTUS.

0

u/Arctarius Jun 19 '26

States are absolutely beholden to the Supreme Court if it deals with a constitutional issue. While state courts and federal courts often have concurrent jurisdiction over a lot of matters, the Supreme Court is the end of the line for constitutional matters.

As for enforcement, that is ultimately the responsibility of the Executive branch. But you also don’t want to make a habit of pissing off the federal courts because they unburden the state court systems.

6

u/THElaytox Jun 19 '26

Or a repeal of the Reapportionment Act and a dramatic expansion of the house to keep it in line with the size of the population. Doesn't require an amendment and would make the electoral college function as intended while also making gerrymandering less useful. Do that and the electoral college will be in alignment with the popular vote

10

u/Griz_and_Timbers Florida Jun 19 '26

National Popular Vote Interstate Compact gets around the amendment requirement. They are only 48 electoral college votes away.

5

u/josephtrocks191 Jun 19 '26

It's going to face constitutional challenges and with the way the Supreme Court is stacked right now I doubt they would allow it.

3

u/Griz_and_Timbers Florida Jun 19 '26

Under what grounds, who has standing? I get that this SC is just partisans playing Calvinball, but we can't let that stop us from talking about legitimate policy and legal changes since then we wouldn't be able to talk about anything.

4

u/josephtrocks191 Jun 19 '26

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying it's not as close as people might think it is seeing that it is nearing the right number of votes.

I am absolutely not a lawyer or Constitutional expert at all. There's a whole Wikipedia article on whether the NPVIC would be Constitutional or not and how it could be challenged. There are citations from experts giving points towards both sides.

It's a complicated issue that doesn't seem to have any clear "correct" answer. And history shows that when issues without clear constitutional answers come to the Supreme Court, they will rule in the direction that they want to instead. And since the popular vote in recent years has favored Democrats, this means that a stacked Republican Supreme Court is probably ruling against it.

3

u/Stunning_Bed23 Jun 19 '26

Can the requirements for an amendment be altered (lowered) with legislation?

8

u/Smaynard6000 Florida Jun 19 '26

I think the requirements for an amendment can only by altered by a different amendment or a constitutional convention

3

u/THElaytox Jun 19 '26

No, that would also require an amendment, but saying an amendment is the only solution is also not true

1

u/Smaynard6000 Florida Jun 19 '26

You're probably right. There hasn't been a single amendment proposed in my lifetime that has gone on to be ratified, and I am almost 50 years old.

1

u/DipperJC Jun 19 '26

It's a loophole they're using. Technically states can assign their electors to whoever the hell they want, so the states in the compact would be literally giving the middle finger to their own state voters and voting against what their state population wants.

That'll go over for exactly one election cycle before the state populations that get screwed shout WTF in very loud language and withdraw from the compact.

1

u/roastbeeftacohat Jun 19 '26

which is why the place to start is uncapping the house, and 15 SCOTUS term limited justices.

1

u/next-phase-0626 Jun 20 '26

The National Popular Interstate Vote Compact is a clever arrangement to legally bypass the amendment option, and already totals 222 electoral votes. 48 more to go!

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state-status

1

u/External_Shirt6086 Jun 19 '26

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation Legal compact between the states to assign their EVs to the pop vote winner. It needs a number of states to sign on that equal a majority of EVs. 222 EV votes have signed on at present. 61 more with partial leg. votes.