Should the U.S. Abolish the Electoral College?

Stop waiting for a constitutional amendment. The fastest way to fix presidential elections is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact—a workaround that doesn't need Congress or a constitutional convention. It's already law in 17 states and D.C., covering 209 electoral votes. We need 270. One more big state—Texas or Florida—and it's game over. That's the concrete recommendation: push your state legislature to join the compact. Forget the fantasy of a bipartisan constitutional amendment; it's dead on arrival.

The question: should we scrap the Electoral College?

Yes. A straight up-or-down vote. The Electoral College distorts the popular will, and the evidence is overwhelming. In 2024, more than 153 million ballots were cast, representing about 65.3% of citizens aged 18 and older (U.S. Elections Project / 2024 turnout). But the winner of the popular vote isn't guaranteed the presidency. That's not hypothetical: it happened in 2000 and 2016. The system also concentrates campaign attention on a handful of swing states, leaving most Americans as spectators.

Public opinion agrees. A September 2024 Pew Research Center survey found 63% of Americans prefer that the presidential winner be the candidate who wins the most votes nationally, while 35% favor keeping the Electoral College (Pew Research Center / Electoral College (2024)). That's a clear majority for change. But here's the catch: support is sharply partisan. 80% of Democrats favor a national popular vote, while 53% of Republicans prefer keeping the current system. Republican support for a popular vote has risen from 27% in 2016 to 46% in 2024. That trend is your opening.

Why the current system fails on its own terms

The founders designed the Electoral College partly to protect small states. But it doesn't do that well. Small states get a slight per-capita boost in electoral votes, but the real action is in a handful of battlegrounds. In 2024, turnout varied wildly by state. Minnesota had the highest state turnout at 75.9%, with Washington D.C. leading overall at 79.5%, while Arkansas was lowest at 52.8% (U.S. Elections Project / 2024 turnout). That's a 23-point gap. Why? Because voters in safe states know their votes don't matter. In a national popular vote, every vote counts equally, whether you're in Arkansas or Minnesota.

The system also creates perverse incentives. Candidates spend nearly all their time in a few states. They ignore the 40-plus states that are safely red or blue. That's not just unfair; it's undemocratic. And it feeds polarization. A February 2024 Pew survey found 71% of Americans say their side in politics has been losing more often than winning on the issues they care about—including 83% of Republicans and 62% of Democrats (Pew Research Center / polarization (2024)). The Electoral College amplifies that sense of loss: if you're a Republican in California or a Democrat in Texas, your vote for president is effectively meaningless.

The compact: a workaround that actually works

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a state-level agreement. Each member state pledges to award its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote—but only once states totaling 270 electoral votes have joined. So far, 17 states and D.C. have signed on, totaling 209 electoral votes. That's 61 short. The remaining states are mostly red, but Republican support for a popular vote is growing. In 2024, 46% of Republicans favored a national popular vote, up from 27% in 2016. If that trend continues, the compact could reach 270 by 2028 or 2032.

Critics say the compact is unconstitutional. They're wrong. The Constitution gives states plenary power to appoint electors however they choose. The compact is just a coordinated exercise of that power. The Supreme Court has upheld state power over electors in cases like Chiafalo v. Washington (2020). The real obstacle is political will, not law.

Compare the two paths to reform:

The compact is the only realistic option. It doesn't require a constitutional amendment, which is nearly impossible in today's polarized climate. It doesn't need Congress. It just needs state legislatures.

What about turnout and trust?

A national popular vote would likely boost turnout. In 2024, 65.3% of citizen voting-age population voted, down from 66.8% in 2020 (U.S. Elections Project / 2024 turnout). But that national average hides huge disparities. In safe states, turnout is lower. In battlegrounds, higher. If every vote mattered, more people would show up. We saw this in 2020: turnout hit 66.4% of the voting-eligible population, the highest since 1900 (UF Election Lab / turnout data). The pandemic made voting easier, but the competitive race also drove turnout. A national popular vote would make every race competitive.

Trust is another factor. Only about 22% of Americans trusted the government in Washington to do what is right just about always or most of the time, according to a June 2024 Pew survey (Pew Research Center (2024)). That's abysmal. But when people feel their vote counts, trust improves. Gallup found that 76% of Americans were confident votes would be accurately cast and counted at their own polling place, with a much narrower partisan divide: 90% of Democrats, 71% of independents, and 70% of Republicans (Gallup / 2024 election integrity). The problem is national confidence: only 57% were confident votes would be accurately counted nationwide, with a record 56-point partisan gap. A national popular vote wouldn't fix everything, but it would make every vote count equally, reducing the sense that the system is rigged.

What I'd actually do

If I were advising a state legislator in a Republican-leaning state, I'd tell them to introduce a bill to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Not because it's a partisan win—it's not. But because it's the right thing to do, and because the trend is on our side. Republican support for a popular vote rose from 27% in 2016 to 46% in 2024. That's a 19-point jump in eight years. If that continues, the compact will pass. The alternative—a constitutional amendment—is a fantasy. We've been waiting since 1969, when the House passed a popular vote amendment, and it died in the Senate. It's not happening.

So here's the concrete ask: contact your state representative and tell them to support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. If you live in a state that's already joined, thank them and ask them to pressure neighboring states. If you live in a holdout state, make it an issue in the next primary. The compact needs 270 electoral votes. We have 209. We need 61 more. That's about one Texas or Florida. It's doable. Stop waiting for a miracle. Start working the states.

Sources

• U.S. Elections Project / 2024 turnout - https://www.electproject.org/
• Pew Research Center / Electoral College (2024) - https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/25/majority-of-americans-continue-to-favor-moving-away-from-electoral-college/
• Pew Research Center (2024) - https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/americans-trust-in-federal-government-and-attitudes-toward-it/
• Gallup / 2024 election integrity - https://news.gallup.com/poll/651185/partisan-split-election-integrity-gets-even-wider.aspx
• UF Election Lab / turnout data - https://election.lab.ufl.edu/data-archive/