Beto O’Rourke takes stance against the Electoral College

DES MOINES, Iowa (NBC) – Beto O’Rourke says he supports a federal appeals court ruling regarding presidential electors who cast the actual ballots for president and vice president.

The court ruled Wednesday that electors are free to vote as they wish and can’t be required to follow the results of the popular vote in their states.

O’Rourke calls the Electoral College a relic of a system that perpetuated institutional racism and says it’s long past time to abolish it.

“400 years almost to the day that slavery was introduced to the United States of America, the Electoral College was based on the same racist apportionment that selected apportionment for the House of Representatives during slavery,” O’Rourke said. “The very formula has its roots in keeping some people down and out of our electoral system and our democracy. So, abolish the Electoral College. At a minimum award of those electors proportionate to the popular vote in a given state, in every state in the union.”

President Trump won the 2016 presidential election despite winning fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton.

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