A majority of Democrats say the Electoral College delegates should cast their ballots based on the popular vote, according to the latest Hill-HarrisX poll released on Wednesday.
Of those surveyed, 56 percent of Democratic voters said that states “should require electors to vote for the winner of the popular vote,” compared to 44 percent of those who said that “electors should use their own judgment when voting.”
Members of the Electoral College cast votes for the president during the general election cycle every four years.
Some electors occasionally go rogue — a move that renders them a “faithless elector,” though many states have laws requiring electors to pledge that they will support the winner of the state’s popular vote.
The question of whether members of the Electoral College should cast their votes for presidential candidates other than the ones they pledged to support remains a contentious issue.
The Supreme Court reportedly agreed to settle the question last month. According to The New York Times, the court will settle on it in its current term, which ends in June.
As previously elections show, just a few delegate votes can make or break an election.
During the bitter 2016 primary battle between Clinton and Sanders, the issue of delegates surfaced. Clinton won the Democratic nomination on the strength of her showing among pledged delegates — meaning those elected by voters. The Sanders campaign later took issue with the fact that the unelected superdelegates — free to support the candidate they want — broke disproportionately to Clinton’s campaign.
Even though Clinton went on to win the popular vote in the 2016 general election, she ultimately lost to President Trump after garnering 232 votes in the Electoral College compared to Trump’s 306 votes.
Following Trump’s unexpected victory, some Democrats floated the idea of getting rid of the electoral college altogether.
A handful of Senate Democrats, including Dick Durbin (ill.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), have supported a constitutional amendment that would abolish the Electoral College, so presidential candidates would be directly elected by a national popular vote.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who introduced the bill, argued the current Electoral College system is “outdated” and “undemocratic.”
Some polls suggest that the American public would support such an unprecedented move. According to a 2019 NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey, 53 percent of voters say the outcome of the presidential election should be determined by the popular vote, compared to 43 saying the Electoral College system should stay in place.
The Hill-HarrisX survey was conducted among 1,001 registered voters between Jan. 30 and 31. It has a margin or error of plus or minutes 3.1 percentage points.
—Tess Bonn
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