Senator pushes to abolish electoral college in US
Trump denies transition disarray after sackings
AFP
A California senator introduced legislation Tuesday to rid the United States of its electoral college, the system that allowed Donald Trump to win the presidency despite Hillary Clintons lead of nearly one million votes, reports AFP from Washington.
The measure comes amid calls for reform following last Tuesdays presidential upset, but is a long-shot.
This is the only office in the land where you can get more votes and still lose the presidency, said Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who introduced the measure.
The US Constitution specifies that the electoral college ultimately decides the presidential election, not the popular vote.
Each US state is given a number of electors, which corresponds to the size of the states population.
In 48 of 50 states, rules require all of a states electors to cast their votes for whichever candidate wins the popular vote there, in a winner-take-all system.
Under these rules, the winner of the electoral college vote does not always correspond to the candidate who won the countrys popular vote.
The electoral college is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to changeimmediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts, Boxer said.
Although Clinton received nearly 800,000 more votes than Trump, according to the latest partial results, she lost in the electoral college.
The electoral vote is at 290 for Trump and 232 for Clinton, although one state has yet to be called. No matter its turnout, they do not have enough electors to bring Clinton a win.
More than 4.3 million people have signed a petition on the change.org website asking the colleges 538 electors to elect Clinton on December 19, when their votes will be officially counted.
But because 26 states legally mandate that electors vote according to the rules and it is almost unprecedented for the remaining states electors to disobey, there is little possibility of a Clinton presidency.
Clintons popular vote performance brings to mind the 2000 election, when Democrat Al Gore lost the White House despite taking 48.4 percent of the popular vote to George W. Bushs 47.9 percent.
Hundreds of Constitutional amendments have been proposed over the decades concerning the electoral college, but none has succeeded.
Amending the Constitution requires the agreement of two-thirds of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states.
Trump himself had strongly criticized the electoral college in 2012 calling it a disaster. On Tuesday, however, he changed his tune. The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different! Trump tweeted.
Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump has defended his handling of the transition to the White House, amid reports of disarray in his team, reports BBC.
Mr Trump tweeted that the process of selecting his new cabinet and other positions was very organised.
US media say two senior members of the transition team working on national security have been forced out.
Mr Trump, a property tycoon and Republican outsider, won an unexpected victory against Hillary Clinton.
He has already replaced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie with Vice-President-elect Mike Pence as head of the transition team. Media reports say Mr Trumps son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner was behind the change.
Mr Christie was New Jersey attorney general when Mr Kushners father was tried and jailed in the state for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering in 2004.
Former Congressman and House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers, who was handling national security for the transition, announced on Tuesday that he was leaving.
He and another member of the national security team, Matthew Freedman, were sacked, according to the New York Times
