The eternal question! The only permanent option is an amendment to the federal Constitution, which would require:
1. Proposal of the amendment by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress or two-thirds of state constitutional conventions; then,
2. Ratification by three-fourths of the State legislatures, or three-fourths of conventions called in each State for ratification.
I'm not optimistic about this route. Congress can't even get simple majority votes just to keep the government open, much less fundamentally change presidential elections!
Since states get to decide how to allocate their electoral votes, though, there is a rather crafty plan floating around called the National Popular Vote Compact, which basically commits the states who pass the Compact to allocating all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of how the state itself votes. However, the Compact only kicks in once a group of states that equals a majority of the EC (270 votes) pass it; doing this would guarantee that the popular vote winner always won the Electoral College.
Problem is, the states that have ratified it already only comprise 208 electoral votes, and the path to getting to 270 is almost impossible. It's mostly blue (Democratic) states right now, and they'd need at least a few swing states to sign on. It also might not be constitutional even if it did pass!
The upshot: it ain't happening, and the EC is probably here to stay.
That was very convincing. Do you have a sense for what it would take to actually initiate any kind of EC reform?
The eternal question! The only permanent option is an amendment to the federal Constitution, which would require:
1. Proposal of the amendment by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress or two-thirds of state constitutional conventions; then,
2. Ratification by three-fourths of the State legislatures, or three-fourths of conventions called in each State for ratification.
I'm not optimistic about this route. Congress can't even get simple majority votes just to keep the government open, much less fundamentally change presidential elections!
Since states get to decide how to allocate their electoral votes, though, there is a rather crafty plan floating around called the National Popular Vote Compact, which basically commits the states who pass the Compact to allocating all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of how the state itself votes. However, the Compact only kicks in once a group of states that equals a majority of the EC (270 votes) pass it; doing this would guarantee that the popular vote winner always won the Electoral College.
Problem is, the states that have ratified it already only comprise 208 electoral votes, and the path to getting to 270 is almost impossible. It's mostly blue (Democratic) states right now, and they'd need at least a few swing states to sign on. It also might not be constitutional even if it did pass!
The upshot: it ain't happening, and the EC is probably here to stay.
Yeesh
Finally, finally a summary on this complicated issue that makes sense.