Why the National Popular Vote Plan Is the Wrong Way to Abolish the Electoral College

Perhaps no constitutional provision is as controversial as the electoral college. Much of the controversy has stemmed over the possibility that the college has the potential to produce a so-called “wrong winner”—-that is a President who has not won the national popular vote. When this happened for the fourth time in the 2000 presidential election, opponents of the college created a plan to avoid the cumbersome constitutional amendment process and end the electoral college through an interstate compact that would ensure that the winner of the national popular vote would become President. This Note argues that this plan, while certainly clever, may run afoul of another deeply contested area of law—-sections 2 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act—-as either minority vote dilution or retrogression in the ability of minority voters to elect the candidate of their choice. In addition, state-based efforts to abolish the electoral college can also be used for partisan manipulation. Accordingly, the Note concludes that the electoral college should only be abolished through a constitutional amendment.