More than 6 in 10 Americans say that the Electoral College should be abolished and replaced with a popular vote model for selecting the president and vice president, a new poll shows.
In a Pew Research Center survey that was published last week, 63 percent of respondents backed instituting a popular vote model over the current Electoral College system — the highest rate the organization has seen in support of instituting a popular vote system since at least the year 2000. Only 35 percent of the poll’s respondents preferred keeping the Electoral College in place.
The poll was conducted from June 27 to July 4.
The results of the survey showed a noticeable partisan divide on the question of the Electoral College. While 80 percent of Democratic-leaning respondents backed transitioning to a popular vote model, just 42 percent of Republicans expressed the same attitude.
Still, that 42 percent is demonstrative of Republican-leaning voters changing their views over time — in 2016, when former President Donald Trump won the election through the Electoral College without winning the popular vote, just 27 percent of Republicans said they supported switching to a popular vote system.
Younger voters also tended to support abolishing the Electoral College. Seventy percent of Americans between the ages of 18-29 said that the president should be chosen through a popular vote model, while just 56 percent of those over the age of 65 agreed.
Since the Constitution’s adoption in the late 18th century, five presidents have won the Electoral College without winning the popular vote. The phenomenon has happened twice since the year 2000, most recently with Trump’s election win in 2016.
Support for changing the system saw a noticeable jump from earlier this year. In a Pew Research Center poll published in January, 55 percent of Americans supported switching to a popular vote method, while 43 percent opposed the measure.
The eight-point increase in support for abolishing the Electoral College may be the result of the work of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
Poll: A Majority of Americans Want to Abolish the Electoral College (truthout.org)