Evening star., 1948-12-04
, The Political Min :. .,-.s.l..:
Electoral College Slated
To Disappear Before 1852
Lodge Plan to Amend Constitution
Has Support in Both Parties
Bv Gould Lincoln

DJ UOWIu LIUCOIU
For years the electoral college has been under
attack as kind of fifth wheel-needless In the
extreme and sometimes unfair-in our system
of electing Presidents and Vice Presidents Of
the United States With any kind of a break
at all, the electoral college-and also the pos
sibility of the election of a President being
tossed into the House Of Representatives-will
be eliminated before the 1852 election rolls
around.
The change, if it takes place, will be brought
about by the adoption and ratification OF
constitutional amendment proposed by Sena-
tor Henry Cabot Lodge, jr, Republican. OF
Massachusetts,. Mr.. Lodge is one Of the more
progressive minded Republicans of the Upper
House, and he believes that presidential elec-
tions should more nearly reflect the popular
will-expressed by the popular vote. He doe'
not believe for example, that the statement
President Truman defeated Gov. Dewey Of New
York in the recent election 304 electoral votes
to l89-with Gov. Thurmond of South Caro-
lima, the Dxiecrat candidate, receiving SO and
Henry Wallace receiving none-gives a correct
or reasonable picture of what actually hap
pened. Nor does it, as a matter of fact
What Figures Show.
Under the Lodge amendment, it has now
been figured out by the Massachusetts, Senator,
aided by the Legislative Reference Bureau Of
the Library of Congress, the electoral vote
would have stood, Truman 1893, Dewey 1928,
Thurmond 395 and Wallace 39. The result
is based on the percentages OF the popular
vote each get in the 48 States. These figures
show Mr.. Truman failing to receive majority
of the total electoral vote of the 48 States, or
266, necessary to win under the old system
The Lodge amendment aboishes the
electoral college but retains. for each State
its electoral votes, based on the number OF
Representatives in the House each State has
plus two votes for its Senators. In addition.
the Lodge amendment does away with the re-
quirement that a candidate to be chosen in
an election, must have majority OF all the
electoral votes The candidate receiving the
largest number of electoral votes will be Prest-
dent-so Mr.. Truman would have won anyway.
And there would have been no chance OF
throwing the election into the House Of Rep
resentatives bad business and one that hap
pened several times in the history OF the
United States.
The original theory was that the States
would pick outstanding men as presidential
electors and the electors would meet and select
the best qualified man for President and the
second best for Vice President. After George
w
Politics and political parties crept in. The
electors finally had no discretion-but were
either morally or legally bound to vote for the
candidate receiving the largest popular vote in
their respective States. The delegated. author
ity has virtually passed, although the Consti-
tuition has not yet been changed.
Denial of Peoples viii.
The Dixiecrats in the last election backed
Gov. Thurmond in the expressed hope that
his candidacy would cause the election to be
thrown into the House and by trading in that
body, some one other than President Truman.
and preferably man like Senator Byrd Of
Virginia, would be chosen President. This
might have been a denial of the will of the
people taken as whole. The Lodge amend
ment prevents such an operation. 1t also elirri-
mates the danger of candidate winning who
received a minority of the popular vote-which
has happened three times in the past First,
in 1924, when Jackson received $4,000 more
votes than did Adams, but lost when the cleo
ton went into the House. second, when Tilden
received 64292 more votes than Hayes; and
third, in 1888, when Cleveland had 3S0s61
more votes than Harrison Harrison won in
the illogical operation Of the electoral college
system.
Under the Lodge plan there would be greater
incentive for the Republicans to get out their
vote in the States of the South, and for the
Democrats to get out their vote in Vermont and
Maine. The bigger the popular vote for the
candidates, the more they would score m the
electoral vote
Widespread support exists for this pro-
posed constitutional amendment-and it comes
from Democrats and Republicans alike In the
present Congress the resolution proposing the
amendment received the approval Of the Ju-
dietary Committees of both Senate and House,
but there was no opportunity to bring it up for
consideration. In the coming Congress the
resolution will be reintroduced and pressed for
action.
Election by plurality is the general rule in
this country, and the Lodge amendment pro-
poses the same thing for the election Of 0