Kamala Harris’s running mate urges popular vote system but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

Kamala Harris’s running mate urges popular vote system but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has called for the electoral college system of electing US presidents to be abolished and replaced with a popular vote principle, as operates in most democracies.

His comments – to an audience of party fundraisers – chime with the sentiments of a majority of American voters but risk destabilising the campaign of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, who has not adopted a position on the matter, despite having previously voiced similar views.

“I think all of us know, the electoral college needs to go,” Walz told donors at a gathering at the home of the California governor, Gavin Newsom. “We need a national popular vote. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win.”

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  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    692·
    1 month ago

    but campaign says issue is not part of Democrats’ agenda

    Fucking hell! Every time either of them says something truly based, some DNC lackey comes and spoils it by saying that! 🤬

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
      111·
      1 month ago

      It’s not like Walz or Harris can do anything about it anyway. Legal scholars have said that it would take a Constitutional amendment to change the electoral college system to anything else, as it is mandated by the Constitution.

      Amending the Constitution requires ratification by 75% of the 50 US states after passing a 2/3 majority of Congress.

      It’s best to be realistic and not get worked up about things you can’t do anything about.

    • d00phy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      1 month ago

      This is just like all those times Republican candidates hedged about Roe v Wade… right up until they finally got it overturned. Sure, the majority of voters agree the EC is outdated and needs to go; but saying as much can scare moderates, and doesn’t get you any new liberal voters. Never forget, “undecided” voters in the US are just fickle assholes who don’t want to vote for someone who “feels” too conservative or liberal. Unfortunately, with FPTP voting, they carry a lot of weight.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
      62·
      1 month ago

      I can understand the strategy this time

      One of the big motivators for the left is that Trump has made credible threats about undermining votes and folks have signed up for it. A fear of having your voice forever silenced in the political system is a strong motivator. You can see because pundits for Trump keep trying to turn it around and say “nuh uh, the Democrats are the ones that will take away your voice”, which generally rings hollow because there’s zero history or rhetoric in the Democratic party to even suggest that.

      This could be the sort of rhetoric those Republicans have been wanting. A Democrat proposing a fundamental change to the biggest election that everyone knows would usually prevent a Republican win for that office. We wouldn’t have had either Republican president in the last 30 years. This could energize scared Republicans or feed the “but both sides” distraction.

      It may make tons of sense, but it’s a huge risk of scaring people to vote against Democrats that might have otherwise sat it out.

    • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
      62·
      1 month ago

      For real, ENOUGH already with the milquetoast Dem leadership being so terrified of actually taking a stand about any issue.