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Taming the Electoral College explores
poorly understood aspects of the electoral college, including
two possibilities in particular that could pose the most serious
danger for American democracy. These are, first, determination
of the president by “faithless electors” who ignore
the popular vote in their states, and, second, choice of the
president in the House of Representatives, which is required
if no electoral college majority votes in favor of a single
candidate. In any given election, neither of these outcomes
is likely, but the 2000 election showed that we would do well
to take both of them seriously and take action now to prevent
them from occurring. Both possibilities could be dealt with
by constitutional amendment, but amendment is difficult to
achieve, particularly as it bears on the electoral college
process. This engaging book instead offers nonconstitutional
solutions to the two possibilities, as well as to a variety
of other problems that lurk in the shadows of the electoral
college process. It also offers a way to work toward popular
election of the president without a constitutional amendment.
Robert W. Bennett is the Nathaniel
L. Nathanson Professor of Law and former Dean of the School
of Law at Northwestern University. He is the author of
Talking It Through: Puzzles of American Democracy (2002).
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