[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 151 (Friday, December 8, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              LEGISLATION ABOLISHING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 8, 2000

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce an 
amendment to the Constitution abolishing the Electoral College.
  Mr. Speaker, on November 7, 2000 two Presidents may have been 
elected.
  Vice President Gore received a majority of the popular vote cast that 
day and Governor Bush may have received a majority of the elector 
college electors.
  Regardless of your political viewpoints, I believe that from this 
point forward the President of the United States should be elected by 
direct popular vote.
  This legislation will abolish the electoral college and ensure that 
when the American people step into the voting booth they, and not a 
slate of faceless electors, will choose the next President.
  The Founding Fathers installed the electoral college as a mechanism 
to ensure only the best and brightest individuals of their time served 
as our President. This relic of a bygone era was created because the 
Founding Fathers did not trust Americans to learn all they needed to 
know to make an informed decision.
  But times have changed and the American people have come along way 
from those days.
  We now live in an era of high-speed Internet access, instantaneous 
media coverage of international events, 24-hour news stations, and 
cross-country flights. There is no reason all Americans can't access 
the information they need to make an informed choice about who they 
want as their President.
  There was a lot of discussion about trust in the recent Presidential 
campaign--on both sides: trusting people to make their own choices 
about retirement savings; trusting seniors to choose their own 
prescription drug plans; trusting women to control their reproductive 
health. Well, if we are going to entrust Americans to make these 
personal choices, we must also trust them to choose the President they 
believe best represents their interests.
  Americans do not need to be protected from their own decisions--it's 
time to trust them.
  In the 20th Century we gave women the right to vote, allowed direct 
elections of our United States Senators, and passed numerous voting 
initiatives designed to open the polling place to all citizens wishing 
to participate.
  In the 21st Century, we must to sweep away these last archaic 
roadblocks and move forward to a truly modern democracy.