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Article: Should the President Be Chosen by Popular Vote or Electoral College?
- Article from:
- Junior Scholastic
- Article date:
- November 13, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The day after the presidential election, Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced that he wants to get rid of the Electoral College. (See JS October 2, 2000.) It's not fair, he says, that a President can be elected without winning a majority of the popular votes.
Senator Specter is introducing a constitutional amendment that will allow the direct election of Presidents. "You get more votes, you win--period," Specter said.
Why do we have a way of electing Presidents that many people say is unfair? The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 invented the Electoral College as part of a compromise. (See JS, October 2, 2000, pp, 18-19.)
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