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Gov. Kathy Hochul called for an end to the Electoral College while presiding over New York casting its 28 electoral votes for president and vice president in Albany on Tuesday.
“The Electoral College does not contribute to the overriding objectives set forth in our great Constitution,” Hochul said. “We the people forming a more perfect union. And I strongly believe that the people of New York state and the United States of America should and must have their votes count equally and that the popular vote should prevail. It’s time to amend the Constitution and relegate the institution of the Electoral College to the history books.”
While presiding over the certification of New York’s electoral vote— Governor Kathy Hochul calls for an end to the Electoral College, telling those gathered in the Senate chamber that the popular vote should be the last word pic.twitter.com/9aTjoMgybm
The office of president in the United States is elected by each state’s electoral votes who go to the candidate who won the popular vote in that state rather than a national popular vote. Each state’s number of electoral votes equals the size of its congressional delegation. New York’s electors cast all 28 votes for Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president. Harris carried the Empire State in November by 12 points.
Post-2020 Census, this is the first time New York has 28 votes in the Electoral College, the fewest amount since the presidential election in 1808.
The New York state Constitution requires that electors meet and cast their votes in person at the state Capitol. The vote returned to its more-often sleepier procedure as it often was prior to 2020 when then-President Donald Trump contested the results of the election in several states. The U.S. Constitution requires that electors meet and vote in December. The Electoral College ballots will be formally counted by Congress on Jan. 6 and President-elect Trump will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2025.
The Electoral College has faced scrutiny for many years, particularly in the 21st century, where on two occasions, the candidate who secured a majority in the Electoral College was not the candidate who won the national popular vote — George W. Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016. The other three times this has occurred in American history were all in the 19th century.
“This convoluted process also leads candidates for president to spend an [enormous] amount of time in a few swing states rather than appealing to the voters of our entire country," Hochul said Tuesday.
Amending how the country elects presidents would require a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority vote in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and then ratification by at least three-quarters of state legislatures.
The system has resulted in the so-called National Popular Vote movement, an interstate agreement where states would award their electoral votes to the candidate who receives a majority of the national popular vote. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation adding New York to that compact in 2014. The compact would only go into effect if states totaling 270 electoral votes sign onto the compact, which is the majority needed for a candidate to win the presidency.
