Heritage.org
Friday, 28 Oct 2011
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Lehrman Auditorium
Attend in Person or
Watch Online
The National Popular Vote Plan is an initiative to effectively abolish the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment. A number of state legislatures have already adopted an agreement in which participating states would allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, rather than the winner of the popular vote in their state. The agreement would go into effect when states with a total of more than the 270 electoral votes (the number required to win a presidential election) have adopted the agreement.
Is this agreement an interstate compact that requires the approval of Congress? Is it an attempt to avoid having to pass a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Electoral College? What were the original purposes of the Electoral College and are they still relevant today? What effect would such a system of electing the president have on our election process? Discussing this issue will be the director of constitutional studies at the Freedom Foundation, as well as a former member of the Federal Election Commission and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Justice Department. It will be hosted by Edwin Meese III, former Attorney General of the United States.
More About the Speakers:
Trent England
Vice President of Policy, The Freedom Foundation
Michael Uhlmann
Professor, Department of Politics and Policy, Claremont Graduate School
Hans A. von Spakovsky
Senior Legal Fellow, Center for Legal & Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Hosted By:
Edwin Meese III Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies
CAJ note: For more background on the National Popular Vote Plan read our article Do Americans understand why progressives want to abandon the Electoral College for the popular vote
