The Electoral College should be abolished and instead the president chosen by a national vote, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at a CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi on Monday evening.
Warren, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, said the Electoral College disenfranchises voters who live in a state dominated by one of the parties.
"Come a general election, presidential candidates don't come to places like Mississippi, she said. “They also don't come to places like California or Massachusetts, because we're not the battleground states."
The senator stressed that "My view is that every vote matters and the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College."
Two times in the past 20 years a Republican won the presidential election while receiving less national votes than his Democratic challenger - in 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore and in 2016 Donald Trump bested Hillary Clinton, The Washington Times reported.
Trump’s victory has spurred momentum for a national popular vote, but the fact that the Electoral College is part of the Constitution makes such a radical change more problematic, according to Politico.
Instead, other alternatives are being pushed attempting to have the same change while officially keeping the Electoral College, such as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
That idea has member states pledge their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote. However, according to Politico, the deal will only go into effect if enough states sign on to pledge the 270 electoral votes necessary to win a presidential election. A combined total of 181 Electoral Votes have committed to the pact with the addition of Colorado last week.
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