Should we ditch the Electoral College? Maryland’s Raskin tells Pa. Democrats it’s time
“Hey, it’s 2024. It’s time to start electing the president the way we elect governors, representatives, senators,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin told Pa. delegates.
Every four years, Pennsylvania becomes the center of the political universe thanks to the quirks of the Electoral College system.
But perhaps even the state’s politicos are getting tired of the incessant campaign ads that come with being the most important battleground.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) on Tuesday drew applause while speaking to the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic National Convention when he suggested the country instead move to a popular vote system.
”It’s an honor to address the delegation which is so central to the fortunes of our party, the fortunes of our country,” Raskin said. “I was thinking, if we didn’t have an Electoral College, every vote would count equally all over the country, and we’d be everywhere. So the system is a little strange.”
Getting rid of the Electoral College would require amending the Constitution.
Raskin, a constitutional law professor who has become a popular surrogate for Democratic candidates across the country, said he thinks that constitutional reform will happen.
”I do think, ‘Hey, it’s 2024. It’s time to start electing the president the way we elect governors, representatives, senators,’” he said. “We’ll take care of that. We’re coming to that.”
The Electoral College in recent years has benefited Republicans. In the last three decades, only one Republican presidential candidate has won the popular vote, and it was former President George W. Bush’s 2004 wartime reelection campaign.
Both Bush in 2000 and former President Donald Trump in 2016 lost the popular vote, but they won the Electoral College and the presidency.
While Raskin favors reform, he said that for now Democrats need to focus on making sure Vice President Kamala Harris wins critical swing states that determine who wins the Electoral College.
”We’re going to have to deal with the rules the way they’re structured today, and that means Pennsylvania and Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada are just right at the center of the ballot,” he said.