Stephanie Liebergen
The History Behind The Weird, Convoluted Way We Elect Presidents
Wish we did things differently? We almost did.
LEARN MOREPosted: 12:47 p.m. EDT Sep 14, 2017
The 2016 presidential election marked the fifth time in America's history the winning candidate didn't win the popular vote.
"If you look at our recent history, we've had several candidates, nominees who've won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College. What does that say?" Hillary Clinton said Wednesday in a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper.
In her book "What Happened," Clinton renewed her call to end the Electoral College, something she said she called for after Al Gore lost the 2000 presidential election.
"An anachronism that was designed for another time no longer works, if we've moved toward one person, one vote," Clinton explained.
So what would that take?
The Electoral College is part of the Constitution, so getting rid of it would take a constitutional amendment.
For those who need a quick civics lesson — that requires the House and Senate to pass the amendment with a two-thirds majority. Then it has to be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
It's been more than two decades since we've amended the Constitution.
The 27th Amendment, passed in 1992, requires any salary changes for Congress to go into effect after the next election.
Proposals to change or eliminate the Electoral College have popped up in Congress over 700 times.
Two resolutions to abolish the Electoral College have been introduced in the House this year. Congress hasn't taken meaningful action on either one.
