Assault on the electoral college: a plan to give the presidency to the candidate with the most nationwide votes would make less-populous states irrelevant in presidential elections.

Assaults on the electoral college are nothing new. The left seems to keep a calendar which schedules dates for periodic attacks on the Constitution's system for electing the president and the vice president. February 23 was such a date. A press conference at the National Press Club in the nation's capital was showtime for political "has-beens" and "wannabes" from deep left field who unwrapped their latest populist project. Promoters include John B. Anderson (former independent presidential candidate), former Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Calif.), former Senators Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) and Jake Garn (R-Utah), Chellie Pingree (President, Common Cause), and others.

Populist Plan to Undermine the Electoral College

Rankled by any institution which they perceive as less than pure democracy, these populists proposed a National Popular Vote Plan to change the way America chooses its chief executive. Each state's legislature is encouraged to enact legislation establishing a new, uniform method of selecting presidential electors. The program involves an agreement among participating states and goes into effect when adopted by enough states to constitute a majority (270) of the votes in the electoral college. The structure of the agreement is bizarre:

* Each member state conducts a popular election for president and vice president.

* The chief election officer of each state must determine the total popular vote for president/vice president in the entire nation even though some states may not have subscribed to the agreement. This is denominated the "national popular vote total."

* Presidential candidates will name their own slate of electors. The state election officer will appoint the slate of electors pledged to the candidate who is chosen as the "national popular vote winner" to be the official electors for the state. It is now common practice for states to elect their presidential electors on the popular ballot, with the names of these electors appearing beside the presidential candidate whom they are pledged to support. This will be changed by the new system, and presidential electors will no longer be chosen by popular vote, but by one person only--the chief election officer in each member state. Note that the presidential candidate declared to be the "national popular vote winner" may thus win a state's electors even though he lost the popular vote in that state.

* In member states, the chief election officer's determination of the "national popular vote total" is final and no provision for recount (an impossibility since it could be a nationwide recount) is made. Neither is there provision for judicial or other relief in the event of voter fraud. Special provisions are made to break tie votes in the popular presidential vote.