Winner-take-all electoral college system is unconstitutional, say suits led by Boies
ABA Journal Feb 22, 2018
A coalition of prominent law firms and professors has filed four federal lawsuits claiming the winner-take-all system of electoral college voting distorts presidential campaigns and violates the U.S. Constitution.
The Constitution provides that “electors” choose the president and vice president, while states determine how electors are selected, the suits explain. Forty-eight states and Washington, D.C., have winner-take-all systems for choosing electors in which the political party of the leading candidate selects every elector. The system magnifies votes by those who chose the winner and discards the votes of others.
In Texas, for example, Donald Trump received 52.2 percent of the vote in 2016, yet he received every single electoral vote in the state, according to the suit filed there. Hillary Clinton received 43.2 percent of the Texas vote, but zero electoral votes. The suits are available here.
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