Barbara Boxer Introduces Bill To Dump Electoral College

Sen. Barbara Boxer during her Senate years. Image by getty images
— Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, has introduced legislation to eliminate the Electoral College.
Under the legislation introduced Wednesday, the winner of presidential elections would be determined by the outcome of the popular vote. The measure would amend the U.S. Constitution.
Boxer did not seek re-election in 2016 and will retire at the end of this year.
Boxer noted in a statement that Donald Trump is the fifth candidate in U.S. history to lose the popular vote and still become president. His Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, who Boxer supported, currently leads by nearly 1 million votes.
“The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately,” Boxer said in the statement. “Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts.”
She called for “One person, one vote!”
In order to abolish the Electoral College, a Constitutional amendment would have to be proposed that would take effect when ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years after its passage in the Congress.
In 2013, Trump tweeted that the Electoral College is a “disaster for a democracy.” And in an interview Sunday with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” he said: “You know, I’m not going to change my mind just because I won. But I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.”
He later tweeted that the Electoral College is “actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”
The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2016
In 2000, Democratic candidate Al Gore received about 500,000 more votes than Republican George W. Bush, but Bush had 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266 to win the presidency.
Boxer has been a senator since 1993 after previously serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for a decade.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.