Hillary Clinton Wants to End Electoral College

Friday, 10 November 2000 22:58 (ET)


 ALBANY, N.Y., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Sen.-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton made a
victory lap Friday to six upstate New York cities to thank her supporters
and to call for an end to the Electoral College.

 "I'm back here first and foremost to say thank you," Clinton said at
Albany International Airport. "We are a very different country than we were
200 years ago, and I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect
the will of the people and to me, that means it's time to do away with the
Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president."

 Clinton said she thinks that if the president wins the Electoral College
but not the popular vote there will be support for the long and time
consuming effort to change the U.S. Constitution. She said that she
supported getting rid of the Electoral College for years.

 "It's like many other issues that you think about and you develop an
opinion about but it doesn't rise to the top of any agenda because there are
other more pressing issues," Clinton said. "But there's no escaping that we
are now in a situation where I think most Americans of either party would
have to admit we should try to create a national consensus to do away with
the Electoral College."

 The Electoral College is part of the U.S. Constitution. It would be
necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system.

 Under the most common method for amending the Constitution, an amendment
must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and
ratified by three-fourths of the states.

 According to the National Archives, in the past 200 years, over 700
proposals have been introduced in the U.S. Congress to reform or eliminate
the Electoral College. In fact, there have been more proposals for
Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any
other subject. The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral
College as "archaic" and "ambiguous" and its polling showed 69 percent of
lawyers favored abolishing it in 1987.

 There already is GOP support for abolishing the Electoral College from the
presidential race. A bill introduced by Republican Rep. Ray LaHood, of
Illinois, was introduced in the U.S. Congress several years ago but has
languished with little support.

 "They will tripping over each other to get back to Washington to do
something with that law. It's something I thought none of us would ever  see
-- that a person would win in raw numbers and lose an election," said Rep.
Jack Quinn, a Republican representing Buffalo, N.Y. "It's crazy. They'll all
will be wanting to change it."

 However, while the first lady said she will co-sponsor the bill to begin
the end of the Electoral College she will have two strikes against her. One,
she is a Democrat in what appears will be a Republican-controlled U.S.
Senate; and two, the U.S. Senate apportions clout on the basis of seniority.

 "When you come into the Senate, no matter how famous you may have been
before you got there, you've got one vote, and you get on the seniority
ladder at the bottom. And we'll be happy to welcome all the new senators,
and they'll start at the bottom, just like anyone who's come here over the
years," Sen. Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.) told the Albany Times Union.

 "The Senate is a great leveler."

 Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican, agreed. "Clinton won't be
afforded any breaks and shouldn't expect her position as the first lady to
translate into effective lawmaking," Lott told the Albany, N.Y. newspaper.
"She will be one of 100 and we won't let her forget it." Although Clinton
served as first lady for eight years and became the only first lady to win
an elective office she said she would take time to find her "footing."

 "You have to be willing to work hard to learn the ropes and the rules,
build relationships with people, all of which I intend to do," Clinton said.
Interestingly, when Clinton takes her oath of office at the beginning  of
January she will still be serving as first lady until the next president is
sworn in on Jan. 20.

HENCH adds: Sorry, I should have put a barf-alert on the top of this page.

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