Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College

by Jesse Wegman

In 1828 Jackson easily won a rematch with Adams, taking the popular vote by 56 percent to 44 percent and the Electoral College by 178 to 83. He cared far more about the former statistic than the latter—so much so that in his first message to Congress, in December 1829, Jackson called for replacing the College with a national popular vote. “To the people belongs the right of electing their chief magistrate,” he said. Engaging in a little historical revisionism, he added, “It was never designed that their choice should in any case be defeated either by the intervention of the electoral colleges or by” the House of Representatives. “The first principle of our system,” Jackson said, is “that the majority is to govern—it must be very certain that a President elected by a minority can not enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge of his duties.”19

December 26, 2020. Not bed yet. Page 101.