The US Electoral College is a vestige of slavery and needs to be abolished altogether, says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist who is running to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District.
“It is well past time we eliminate the Electoral College, a shadow of slavery’s power on America today that undermines our nation as a democratic republic,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter shortly after the US Senate confirmed Judge Brett Kavanaugh as a justice of the Supreme Court.
The US government’s website states that the Electoral College was established because “the nation’s founders saw it as a compromise between electing the President by a popular vote among citizens and electing the President in Congress.”
This means that the winner of a US presidential election is ultimately decided by 538 electors across different states based on each state’s representation in Congress. To win, a candidate needs to get at least…