The Electoral College is an imperfect instrument, leading to cases where the winner of the national popular vote for President doesn't actually become President. This happened, of course, in 2000, when Al Gore won half a million more votes than George W. Bush but still "lost" in terms of electoral votes (including the disputed Florida results). That's why I like this new proposal, outlined in today's New York Times:
The answer to all of these problems is direct election of the president. Past attempts to abolish the Electoral College by amending the Constitution have run into difficulty. But National Popular Vote, which includes several former members of Congress, is offering an ingenious solution that would not require a constitutional amendment. It proposes that states commit to casting their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote. These promises would become binding only when states representing a majority of the Electoral College signed on. Then any candidate who won the popular vote would be sure to win the White House.The coalition is starting out by trying to have laws passed in Illinois and a few other states. Americans are rightly cautious about tinkering with mechanisms established by the Constitution. But throughout the nation's history, there have been a series of reforms affecting how elections are conducted, like the ones that gave blacks and women the vote and provided for the direct election of United States senators. Sidestepping the Electoral College would be in this worthy tradition of making American democracy more democratic.
As "National Popular Vote" points out, "The current system forces presidential candidates to focus their campaigns on a handful of closely divided ?battleground? states, thereby making the voters in two-thirds of the states irrelevant." The American people are strongly behind this: "For over 50 years, the public has supported nationwide popular election of the President by majorities of 70% or greater. " Finally, the group has a great plan - an ?interstate compact" between all the states on this issue - to get a "legally enforceable contractual obligation among the states" without amending the Constitution.
Sounds like a plan to me.