Resolved, that the Fourteenth Guam Legislature, on behalf of the voters of Guam, supports the enactment of an amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish the electoral college and establish the direct popular vote for President and Vice President of the United States; and be it further Resolved, that the Speaker certify to and the Legislative Secretary attest the adoption hereof and that copies of the same be thereafter transmitted to Senator Birch Bayh; to the Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives; to the Secretary of Interior; to Representative A. B. Won Pat; to Guam's Constitutional Convention President, Senator C. T. Gutierrez; and to the Governor of Guam. Duly and regularly adopted on the 16th day of August, 1977. ERNESTO M. ESPALDON, Speaker. [APPENDIX 19] [Resolution Adopted by B'nai B'rith Women] B'NAI B'RITH WOMEN, Washington, D.C. RESOLUTION: ELECTORAL COLLEGE REFORM It became apparent in the last Presidential election that the Electoral College no longer serves the purposes for which it was designed. With the modern media of communication, we feel that direct vote is more feasible and more democratic. B'nai B'rith Women urges that all necessary steps be taken by Congress to bring about elimination of the Electoral College prior to the 1972 election. [APPENDIX 20] YOUNG DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA, [Resolution No. 15, passed by the Young Democrats of America in Convention July 28, 1977 reads as follows:] Whereas the President and the Vice President of the United States should be elected by direct vote of the American people, and; Whereas the electoral college has in the past prevented this direct popular will from being expressed and may do so in the future, and; Whereas the electoral college represents an elitist form of Presidential selection contrary to the ideals of the democratic process, and; Be it resolved that the YDA support the abolition of the electoral college and establish direct election of the President and the Vice President. [APPENDIX 21] [Communication from Station WSB-TV, Atlanta, Ga.] WSB-TV, Atlanta, Ga., March 7, 1977. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE 95th Congress: You may well be called upon to cast a vote in the near future on a revision or repeal of our electoral college system. A recent series of WSB-TV editorials highlights some of the deficiencies and offers several alternatives to the dangerous and outmoded current system. Those editorials are included in this booklet which we hope you will find helpful in your deliberations. If you have any comments or questions, I would be happy to hear from you. Cordially yours, Enclosures. DON ELLIOT HEALD. "THE PROBLEM" DECEMBER 6, 1976. Next week, Jimmy Carter will be selected 39th President of the United Statesmaybe. You thought the question had already been settled? You could be wrong! By secret ballot next Monday, the Electoral College will name the next President. When you voted last month, you voted-not for a presidential candidate but for a group of these electors. And they will make the actual decision about the Presidency-next week. Also, they are not obligated by your vote! Except for six states, they are not even legally bound by their own party's wishes! There's no doubt they will elect Jimmy Carter next Monday, but the electoral college system is antiquated, unneeded and potentially dangerous. Changes need to be made. All this week, we'll take an editorial look at the electoral system and the potential disasters it contains. For instance, the Electoral College might overturn the popular vote and name the runner-up as President. It has already happened three times!!! Another for instance, a President could be elected under the present system, by carrying just 12 states. Incredible? It could happen. We'll talk more about these freightening situations later in the week. Tomorrow, we'll look at the system itself and the way it works. The electoral college system was first used in 1789. It provides that a few select people actually make the decision about the presidential and vice presidential candidates. These select people are usually designated by the various political parties and need have no special credentials except that they be friends of friends selected by political party committees. When you cast your vote last month, you were voting, not for a president, but for members of the Electoral College. And a very important part of the arrangement that you should be aware of is that members of the Electoral College are not bound by law in their eventual vote, except in six states. Also, you should know all of a state's votes go, in theory, to the candidate receiving the most votes in that state, Because of the way the system is set up, members of the Electoral College have, on three separate occasions, named a president who was not the popular choice of the American voters. Next Monday, the electors will cast secret ballots in each of the individual states. Then the Secretary of State in each state will compile the vote and send the tally to Washington where the final tabulation will take place in January. That's how the system is set up. And the system can, and has on three occasions, gone against the wishes of the American people. We'll look at those elections tomorrow. Because of the way the electoral college system is set up, it not only can, but it has, on three occasions broken down and second-runners have become presidents. In 1824, Andrew Jackson received over 43 percent of the popular vote; John Quincy Adams received about 30 percent of the popular vote. The electoral system failed and Congress named John Quincy Adams as President. In 1876, Samuel Tilden received over 50 percent of the popular vote, not only the most votes, but a clear majority of the popular vote. But a special election commission gave disputed electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes. He won the electoral vote with only 48 percent of the popular vote. Then in 1888, the electoral college put Benjamin Harrison in the White House despite the fact that Grover Cleveland had outpolled him in the popular vote. Any system which can ignore the mandate of the American pepole should be changed or abolished. The situation that existed in 1787, when the Continental Congress decided it needed an electoral college, no longer exists. The American people are now the most educated and best-informed people in the world. And the popular vote for the nation's highest offices should be held inviolate. The voters in 12 particular states represent 20 percent of the nation's population and they can elect a president. Tomorrow we'll look at that nightmare. Yesterday we talked about the three elections when the runner-up was named President, rather than the winner of the popular vote. But a much more lopsided and terrifying possibility exists because of the electoral college system. Under the system, it is possible for just 12 states to put a candidate in the White House. If a candidate carried Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and California, that candidate would become president, no matter how many votes the candidates got in the other 38 states. In other words, the popular vote in 38 states would have no effect on the outcome of the election. That's because the 12 states mentioned have 280 electoral votes between them. More than enough to give a candidate the Presidency. And a system that might allow this to happen should be done away with. Why an Electoral College? If we think the electoral system should be changed, we should know why we have it in the first place. Back in 1787, when some very wise people were writing the U.S. Constitution, they wrestled with the idea of how to name a president. There was no television, no jet aircraft, many people were uneducated and only land owners were voters. The idea of the people electing a president was out of the question. So instead, the writers of the Constitution decided some of the wisest men of country should have that right-a special group of public men. Perhaps Congress, perhaps governors or instead: a compromise under which each state would have a few men appointed to selected the President and Vice President. They were electors who later became known as the Electoral College. But the electors at that time were not voted upon, that came a number of years later. For that matter, political parties were unknown to the constitutional writers. Through the years, we have changed the system to allow the people of each state to elect a group of representatives to met and cast their ballots for a president and vice president. It doesn't matter what the majority or even plurality of the American people want, it's what this group of electors wants. And there is an imbalace between population and electors. For instance, Georgia and Alaska. Each Alaskan's vote has four times the weight of a Georgia ballot. It takes four votes in Georgia to equal one in Alaska. Hardly fair. But even though the founding fathers did not have enough faith in the people to allow them to elect their president, they did have the great wisdom to write a flexible Constitution that could be changed and has been changed many times. Next Monday the electors will cast their ballots and we will talk about how the Constitution can be changed to instead give the people the power to elect a president. |