[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 79 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 79

 Expressing the sense of Congress that Congress and the States should 
consider a constitutional amendment to reform the Electoral College and 
establish a process for electing the President and Vice President by a 
    national popular vote and should encourage individual States to 
continue to reform the Electoral College process through such steps as 
    the formation of an interstate compact to award the majority of 
      Electoral College votes to the national popular vote winner.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 14, 2017

   Mr. Conyers (for himself, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Cohen, Mr. 
Raskin, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, 
    Mr. Jeffries, Mr. Blumenauer, and Mr. Gutierrez) submitted the 
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of Congress that Congress and the States should 
consider a constitutional amendment to reform the Electoral College and 
establish a process for electing the President and Vice President by a 
    national popular vote and should encourage individual States to 
continue to reform the Electoral College process through such steps as 
    the formation of an interstate compact to award the majority of 
      Electoral College votes to the national popular vote winner.

Whereas the Supreme Court has held that the ``conception of political equality 
        from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 
        to the 15th, 17th, and 19th Amendments can only mean one thing -- one 
        person, one vote;'';
Whereas the Electoral College is an anti-democratic method of Presidential 
        selection that has permitted the candidate without a majority of the 
        popular vote to become President of the United States on five occasions, 
        including the most recent election, in which Hillary Clinton garnered 
        almost 3 million more votes than Electoral College winner Donald Trump;
Whereas the Electoral College lessens the value of votes in the majority of 
        States relative to the value of votes in so-called swing States because 
        a small number of voters in these States can determine the outcome of an 
        election;
Whereas a person could be elected President with potentially less than 22 
        percent of the popular vote, calling into question his or her political 
        legitimacy;
Whereas the ``winner take all'' basis of the Electoral College discounts the 
        votes of the millions of people who did not vote for the winning 
        candidate in their States;
Whereas the Electoral College does not act as a check on unqualified candidates 
        as the Framers of the Constitution intended because it is populated by 
        political party loyalists who do not, and often under State law cannot, 
        exercise independent judgment or who do not even meet to deliberate 
        about who should be President, which is why over time there have been 
        very few ``faithless'' electors, and none that have decided an 
        election's outcome;
Whereas the Electoral College does not protect small-population States and rural 
        areas from domination by large-population States and urban areas and 
        instead encourages candidates to bypass the majority of States, whatever 
        their size, to focus their campaign efforts on a very small number of 
        swing States;
Whereas in the 2016 Presidential election both major party candidates largely 
        bypassed 3 of the 4 largest States by population during the campaign and 
        also skipped campaigning in 12 of the 13 smallest States as well;
Whereas statewide recounts under differing and confusing rules bring neither 
        clarity nor finality to the electoral process, while a national popular 
        vote is far more likely to establish a clear winner, avoiding the 
        necessity of recounts altogether;
Whereas according to Yale Law School Professor Akhil Reed Amar, the Electoral 
        College is an anachronistic institution, its historical development 
        rooted in preserving the political influence of slaveholding States 
        whose enslaved populations were not allowed to vote but three-fifths of 
        whom were counted when determining the number of Electoral College votes 
        allotted to the State;
Whereas proposed amendments to the Constitution reforming the Electoral College 
        have been approved by a two-thirds majority twice in the Senate and once 
        in the House, and more than 700 proposals to eliminate or reform the 
        Electoral College have been introduced; and
Whereas 11 States representing 165 electoral votes have already entered into an 
        interstate compact to cast their electoral votes for the national 
        popular vote winner: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) Congress and the States should consider a 
        constitutional amendment to reform the Electoral College and 
        establish a process for electing the President and Vice 
        President by a national popular vote; and
            (2) Congress should encourage the States to continue to 
        reform the Electoral College process through such steps as the 
        formation of an interstate compact to award the majority of 
        Electoral College votes to the national popular vote winner.
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