Amendment would end electoral votes

Col. Daniel B. McElwain Jr.
Published: April 2, 2008

Despite the repetitive talk of amending the part of the U.S. Constitution that deals with the election of a president and vice president, nothing is ever done. 

So, I have done it in my as yet unpublished book "The Next 13 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution," and present it to you, the readers:

This amendment abolishes the Electoral College.

Article II, Executive Power

Section I, How Elected

1.The president and the vice-president shall be elected by a simple majority of the sum total of the national popular vote of all the votes that are cast by the eligible citizens voters of the several states and eligible territories that comprise the United States of America.

2.The Electoral College is hereby abolished.

3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified within seven years from the date of the first statewide election.

4.This article shall be considered operative no later than one year after its ratification by the several states.

Justification: There will be no body of citizens other than the eligible citizen voters, of the general American public who may vote for the president and vice president of the United States of America.

This amendment restores the power to elect the president and the vice president to the eligible citizen voter and the national tally.

The appointment of electors, by the state legislatures, is in total conflict with the intention of "free public elections."

Therefore, with the abolition of the Electoral College, this amendment denies the state legislatures and those persons identified as electors any and all opportunities to have any "appointment" or "voting" power relative to the selection of the president and vice president such that their "votes" cannot necessarily defy or conflict with the will of the state or national public popular vote tally, regardless of variations in state tallies.
I will consider only constructive suggestions to this amendment.

Col. Daniel B. McElwain Jr. is retired from the U.S. Air Force. He lives in Culpeper.